The Belgian government, with Prime Minister Charles Michel (middle) and Interior Minister Jan Jambon (right of Michel) | NICOLAS MAETERLINCK/AFP/Getty Flemish nationalists face Catalan independence dilemma Government under threat if N-VA pushes to recognize an independent Catalonia.

Flemish separatists could bring down the Belgian government in order to pledge support for an independent Catalonia, according to media reports Tuesday.

At a meeting of European pro-independence movements in December, Jan Jambon, Belgium's interior minister and deputy prime minister, was asked if he was prepared to let the government fall on the issue of recognizing Catalan independence. His answer was "we cannot risk losing our credibility."

Jambon is a senior member of the Flemish nationalist N-VA, the largest party in Belgian politics. His comments were picked up by a fringe left-leaning separatist magazine in December, but only hit the mainstream Belgian press Tuesday.

The minister told De Morgen newspaper Tuesday that "in case [Catalan independence] happens, this will be a difficult question for us."

The N-VA's vice president, MEP Sander Loones, told De Morgen that "it's a key principle for us that peoples have the democratic right to define their own fate, also within the EU."

The N-VA has longstanding ties with the Catalan independence movement and has publicly backed the separatists, who won an election in September.

If Catalonia's new president, Carles Puigdemont, delivers on his promise to achieve independence within 18 months, the Belgian federal government will have to decide if it recognizes the new country.

The Flemish nationalists would either have to push for recognition of Catalonia and risk new elections which could bring down the government, or risk alienating their core support at home.

If they did back a Catalan state, the N-VA would be pitted against its coalition partners, especially the French-speaking liberal MR party of Prime Minister Charles Michel.

"The MR will have a hard time dealing with this," said political commentator and university professor Dave Sinardet. "The issue could be seen as a precedent for an independent Flanders. If the MR party meets the N-VA's position, it would be seen as playing into the Flemish nationalists' hands. They'll have trouble explaining that to the French-speaking voters," he said.

As part of the coalition agreement, N-VA buried its own separatist demands for five years. But the debate on splitting up Belgium is again heating up.

"The deal was that N-VA dropped its agenda of federal reforms, but this is a concrete dossier that touches on the issue of separatism and — if it gets to that stage — the government would have to come out with a position," said Sinardet.

The N-VA has rebranded itself as a rightist conservative force in recent years, but its pro-independence demands are likely to resurface in the run-up to the next election, in 2019.