That's a great idea. "Belgium: The Board Game". Just be careful with the "Scandals & Corruption" expansion pack, it's pretty NSFW.

That could be the European expansion pack with Karel De Gucht for example ( tax fraud + european commissioner for trade), don't forget electrawinds, tecteo, ...

Not to nitpick, but, innocent until proven guilty? To accuse someone of tax fraud is morally repugnant, when both the facts and courts say otherwise. This isn't really a scandal, more of a personal matter (for him).

First of all: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karel_De_Gucht#Belastingontdui... ( dutch version) - here is more information then the censored english version.

And second, i "know" people who were pretty acquanted with the sale of the justice building in Furnes ( West - Flanders ), where Karel De Gucht was one of the so called secret investors and let's not forget who was closely involved with that: Yves Vanmaele.

There was a "documentary" on Terzake about him.. Where there is smoke, there is fire. But people who live nearby, see more smoke than others :)

It's hard to put in hard evidence, when politicians and judges shake hands and forgive each others sins without a trial. It's like bringing in kadhafi under the condition that he will be judged by his own friends ( to put it in the extreme).

I know personally 3 friends who's cases were influenced ( good or not) because of "Vanmaele" personally.

If you speak Dutch: http://nieuws.vtm.be/binnenland/90071-integraal-de-gewraakte...

I hate to say this stuff above, because it sounds so conspiracy like. But it's more like a well known secret in the West-Flanders. Everyone here knows, but why would you take a risk, with something you have no business with and agains very "powerfull" / influential people. ( judges, politicians, Trade Commisioner of the EU)

Edit: I'm watching the video again, it's practicly everything i'm saying here (although i mostly forgot about the video )

(I am Belgian and speak dutch)

Oh, I'm not saying everything is above board. That I agree with. However, I do have several wealthy friends who have, unreasonably, been harassed by the fiscal administration on certain matters. A lot of it is fishing to see if they can find something that sticks.

From what I saw in the media (we obviously don't know the exact details):

1. He invested in a company, many years ago.

2. He sold his shares, with a capital gain, which generally is tax free in Belgium

3. Some civil servant decided he wanted to interpret the law differently (and tax him), and he tried to make it stick. As far as I know, he failed.

The problem with Belgian tax law is that it's full of "maybe's", "ifs", and obscure undefined terms. That creates ambiguity in different matters and different cases. Like everything in Belgium.. :)

He did not sell his shares the day before it insanely dropped. His wife and friends did, with presumeable insider trading secrets :)

I also have some wealthy friends, but they haven't been accused of that. None the less, Belgium is a lot of administration, i agree on that. And a lot of "you know me" politics also :)

I think you're mixing things up. One of those cases was "abuse of power" related (the one you're bringing up), and the other one (share sale described above) was tax related.

Burning money (Agusta scandal) is my favorite one.

The helicopters were not just more expensive, but in practice useless. When fully equipped, their operating range is IIRC ridiculous.

So basically a Belgian edition of "Die Macher" (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1/die-macher).

Though if one were in the mood for a more morbidly entertaining political game, a re-theme of Republic of Rome may be in order. It's also a game of up to six factions trying to be the most powerful at game end...but there's also a crisis every turn that if ignored can cause everyone to lose! You just need to replace "Hannibal at the gates" with some EU 2015 equivalent, and maybe have the "senator (+ legions) in my faction declares himself emperor" action be replaced with "Flemings/Walloons declare independence".

I'm from Belgium and even i think it's an awesome idea :p

No, no! It is at least a six player game. You have Wallonian socialists and Flemish socialists, Wallonian Catholics and Flemish Catholics, etc.

And expert players can choose to play for a German-language version of one of those. Those parties can only achieve something by carefully maintaining the balance of power.

You would probably love Victoria 2. It's a computer game, not a board game, but a large part of the gameplay involves balancing various factions in your parliament and your population. You can easily pick a pet party and try to help them succeed.

Playing that game as the Ottoman Empire was hugely enlightening. Surrounded on all sides by potential enemies, a barely coherent population, not enough resources, and a million miles from industrialization. Whee!