I have blogged earlier about a, now aborted, attempt by a group of extreme right activists and independentists to get hold of a ccTLD for Belgian Flanders.

A new attempt, by Flemish parliament member Mark Demesmaeker,  is on its way. As Mr Demesmaeker observes in his question to the flemish government, Flanders cannot get .vl because they do not have an ISO-3166 two letter code, and won’t get one “until it gets independent and not earlier” (Vlaanderen zal .vl krijgen als het onafhankelijk wordt en niet eerder).

This is why he suggests asking for .vla instead. This time, rather than extremist groups, it is the Flemish government itself which will be pursuing the project.

There is still some common background to the failed proposal and the new one, as one extrem right parliament member observed. Both see this as a first step towards political independence, rather than as a way to build a cultural community, like .cat did.  Mr Demesmaeker makes it clear in other posts on his blog that he wants Flanders to be a Flemings-only club. It must be heartbreaking for those independentists to be relegated to just ask for a gTLD, rather than the ccTLD they think they deserve.