North/South Instead of East/West

Columnist Anne Applebaum writes an interesting piece for Slate about the new Europe, where she finds the fiscally prudent North stands apart from the corrupt, spendthrift South. There are some holes in her analysis but it is an interesting thesis nevertheless.

I find it strange that she manages not to include Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands and Belgium in her discussion. They are geographically North but Belgium, at least, is behaviorally ambiguous. It must be the French influence of Belgium's Walloon minority.