Flanders and the Flemish movement
Short History of Flanders
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Flanders is known by most as the northern part of Belgium. But before the foundation of Belgium (1830), Flanders had its own cultural and scientific history, for more than 1000 years.
Misinformation about Flanders is probably largely due to some factors, including: (1) for nearly one and a half century, information about Flanders was filtered by a French speaking ruling minority, (2) short stay visitors, who limit their visit to Brussels - since the 19the century a largely French speaking enclave in Flanders-, have the false impression to be in a French speaking country, (3) Flemish people generally undervalue their own history; most of the information presented here on renown Flemish people had to be gathered from international websites, a fact significant in itself.
Now that Brussels, situated in Flanders, is becoming Europe's capital, a more objective information about this culturally fertile and economically rich region might be highly desirable.
Roman Occupation
The Belgian region was inhabited by Celts or Gauls, since many centuries BC. Julius Caesar, in his De Bello Gallico, called the Belgians "the bravest of all Gauls" --probably to explain why he stopped his European expansion at this level. After this war, many Roman colonists moved into these regions. The most important city was Tongeren "Atuatica Tungrorum", in the north east of nowadays' Flanders, where Ambiorix, king of the Celtic Tungri and strongly opposed to Caesar, lived.
Germanic Immigration
Between 300 and 600 A.D., Germanic tribes (the "Franks" or "free people") slowly moved into this fertile region. The limit between the part where the Gallo-Romans outnumbered, and where the Franks were the most numerous is still the language border between the Germanic and the Romance language groups. Actually, Flemish people are the descendants of these Franks ("Issalic" or "Salic" Franks, "near to the Issal Sea or Ijsselmeer", to discern them form the "Ripuarian" Franks which stayed in Germany).
Flanders
The name "Flanders" was first mentioned in the 8th century (in the Vita Eligii, the life of Eligius, Bishop of Tournai around 640, as "Pagus Flandrensis") and pointed to the region around Bruges. The name "Flanders" probably is from Celtic origin, and means "swampy region". The Latin name "Belgica" or "Belgium" probably comes from the same word. Gradually, the name "Flanders" covered the western part (dominated by Ghent and Bruges), and eventually the whole Dutch speaking northern half of contemporary Belgium. Until the 18th century, the words "Nether-Lands" and "Belgium" were synonymous.
Two parts of Flanders now lie outside of Belgium: "French Flanders" in the south around Lille, taken by the French from Spain in the 17th century, and ìSea Flandersî (ìZeeuws Vlaanderenî) in the south of Holland, transfered from Belgium to Holland in 1830, to prevent Belgium from freely using the Scheldt river to become too strong an economic force. A few years later, the Dutch government even blocked the river by long chains for several decades, reducing the international port of Antwerp into a ghost city.
Frankish Period
The Frankish Kings first had their capital in the city of Tongeren, in the north of nowadays' Flanders. Progressively they extended their realm to the south, relocating their capital first to Tournai (Torniacum, Doornik) by Kings Childerik and his son Clovis (481-511), and eventually to Paris. In fact, the first French Kings were the descendants of the Flemish ("Frankish") Kings, and during several generations the royal oath of the Kings of France was pronounced in the Flemish/Frankish language, before switching to Gallo-Roman. This relocation of the capital had as effect that Flanders, first the central part of the realm, eventually became a peripheral part of the Frankish kingdom, the "County of Flanders". Even the Flemish names for the country (Francia = Realm of the Franks) and the language (French = the language of the Franks) were borrowed from Flanders, and no longer covered their original meaning. French history typically starts with the Flemish Kings Childerik and his son Clovis, skillfully hiding the Flemish origin of the French Kingdom.
Nevertheless this peripheral position didn't prevent the economic and cultural superiority of Flanders during many centuries.
County of Flanders
From the first count (Baldwin I, "with the Iron Arm", d. 879) to Emperor Charles V (1500-1558) born in Ghent but moved to Spain, there is an impressive line of Counts, Kings and Emperors born and living on Flemish soil. The county was progressively extended, and its borders came near to Paris in the 12th century. The Flemish Count was even appointed as a guardian to the minor French king. Later, the French King tried to regain his power from Flanders, but was beaten with his knights at Kortrijk (Courtrai) in 1302. After this "Battle of the Golden Spurs" (11 July 1302), now exactly 7 centutries ago, King Philip the Fair of France eventually yielded to the demands of the Flemish and granted Flanders its independence. Although historians don't always agree about the socio-political context and historical meaning of this battle, it became the symbolic "Independence Day" for the Flemish community.
The Flemish rulers played an important role in the Crusades. In fact, the first "King of Jerusalem", Baldwin I, was the count of Bonen (Boulogne), in the County of Flanders, and the younger brother of Geoffrey of Bouillon, in the south of the Netherlands, who organized the first Crusade. There is an enduring legend that the national flag bearing the Flemish Lion was introduced to Flanders after being brought home from a crusade. The flag is said to have been modeled after the coat of arms of a defeated Saracene - the Sultan Baybars - who had kicked the last Crusaders out of Jerusalem. However, historical research yields other evidence.
Burgundic Period
By royal family links, Burgundy was linked with Flanders in 1384, and the rulers of Burgundy immediately relocated their capital to the much richer Flanders. One of their first decisions was to relocate the Counsel of Flanders from Rijsel ("Lille") to Ghent. Progressively, the influential cities lost their power to a central monarch, and the "XVII Provinces" became a recognisable entity, also called the Lower Countries or Nether-Lands or Belgica, including Holland, Belgium and Luxemburg. This region was often depicted as "Leo Belgicus" ("The Belgian Lion"). Flanders, the central part of it, was also referred to as "The Southern Netherlands".
The southern part of the Netherlands were very active from an economic and cultural point of view. Bruges, "the Venice of the North", displayed a commercial activity that, in fact, largely surpassed the economic importance of Venice. Labeling Bruges as "the New York of the middle Ages" probably should be more appropriate --as demonstrated during the exhibition "The Hanze in Bruges", Bruges 2002. And till in the 18th century, the city of Ghent, a centre of textile industry, was greater and richer than Paris or London.
Spanish Occupation
When Philip II by the abdication of his father, Charles V, became sovereign of the Low Countries and took up the government of the Seventeen Provinces, he found them at the zenith of their prosperity, as is evident from the description given in 1567 by Luigi Guicciardini in his "Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi" (Totius Belgii Descriptio, Amsterdam, 1613).
Few countries were so well governed; none was richer. Antwerp had taken the place of the silted up Bruges as commercial metropolis; every day saw a fleet of 500 sea-going craft enter or leave its port. Of Ghent (Gand), his native town, Charles V used to say jocosely: Je mettrais Paris dans mon Gand [I could put Paris (bet) in my glove (gant)]. Humanism gradually undermined traditional faith. Protestantism had already effected an entrance. In addition the more powerful of the nobility now hoped to play a more influential part in the government than they had done under Charles V, and were already planning for the realization of this ambition. The situation presented many difficulties, and unfortunately Philip II was not the man to cope with them. He had little in common with his Low-Country subjects. Their language was not his; and he was a stranger to their customs. From the day he quitted the Netherlands in 1559, he never set foot in them again, but governed from far-off Spain. He was despotic, severe, crafty, and desirous of keeping in his own hands all the reins of government. He was on the whole a most unsuitable ruler in spite of his sincere desire to fulfil the duties of his royal office. The decline of Flanders' cultural superiority started with the suppression of Reformation. Due to their humanistic way of thinking, most of Flemish intellectuals and merchants became reformed during the 16th century. Several towns became "protestant dictatures", some for even a longer time than the famous Calvinistic Republic of Geneva (1536-1541, Ghent 1577-1584). This didn't please to the Spanish ruler, Philip II, who feared losing his richest province, and a strong army was sent into those Provinces, cruelly restoring Catholicism, although in 1576 the famous Pacification of Ghent was proclaimed, the first charter of religious tolerance in history. The Spanish army halted at the north of Antwerp, considering the agricultural Northern provinces without much economic value. This is the historical origin of the border between Holland and Belgium. Most of Flemish intelligentsia and the richest people fled to the Northern provinces, including the parents of Vondel, the most famous Dutch author, some (as the parents of Rubens) to Germany, others to Britain. This massive immigration (e.g. the city of Delft counted at that moment more Flemish immigrants than original Dutch people, Amsterdam 33% Flemish, Leiden 66 %!) was the start of the Dutch Republic and Kingdom (1579) and the Golden Century for Holland. The Bible was translated into Dutch mostly by immigrated Flemish translaters, making the ensuing official modern Dutch language much closer to southern than to northern dialects. The military advisers of the Northern Prince, and the composer of the Dutch National Hymn all were Flemish. And even William, the first Prince of the North, had passed his youth in the southern Netherlands, and his dream had been to keep the whole of his XVII provinces, not just the northern half of it...
During the next century France took advantage of Spain's weakness to try to annex parts of Flanders, using every imaginable pretext (compensation for an unpaid dowry by a Spanish princess, the "reunion" of parts earlier belonging to regions, now already under French domination, etc.) to start wars.
Austrian and French Occupation
Although arts remained for another century at an impressive level with Rubens (1577-1640, returned to Antwerp at age 6), the decline of Flanders, deprived from its intellectual and economic power, and heavily taxed and extortioned by Spain, Austria (1713-1792) and France (1792-1814), was inevitable. Anything that was not too hot or too heavy was transported to Spain, Austria and France, and is now the pride of their national musea and private collections. In fact, Austria was condemned several times, by international congresses, to restitute the most important Flemish art works (including many paintings of Rubens, art works from churches and abbeys closed by the Austrian monarch, the treasure of the Order of the Golden Fleece) but up to now omitted to do so.
In 1814, the final treaty of the Independence of the United States of America was signed in Ghent.
Dutch Period
After the defeat of Napoleon in 1814 at Waterloo near Brussels, the Southern Netherlands -Belgium- were re-united to Holland by the Congress of Vienna (1815). The protestant King of Holland was not very skillful in organizing that bigger and rebellious catholic Belgium, and eventually a street revolution in Brussels, conducted by French speaking and catholic crowds, claiming 1 (one) casualty, provoked a splitting up of both countries (1830). King Willem was only too happy to leave. Belgium was confirmed as a buffer state by the Vienna Congress, but deprived from its military strongholds, including Maastricht and Givet --explaining those surprising indentations in the Belgian border--, and its bordering to the Scheldt river, transfered to Holland, that closed this river for half a century.
Belgian Period
Although the majority of Belgium was and still is Dutch speaking, the process of frenchization of public life, started during the French occupation, was intensified. Ruled by a French speaking minority, all schools and universities in Flanders had to switch to French, leading to insulting paradoxes as Dutch speaking teachers speaking French to Dutch speaking pupils. Moreover, pupils were punished when they spoke their native language. The administrative capital Brussels, lying entirely within Flanders, progressively got a French speaking majority. But inevitably a cultural and political movement of a revival of thousand years of Flemish culture and identity emerged during the 19th century, leading first to the possibility (not yet the obligation) to use Dutch in public life in Flanders at the end of the 19th century, the reintroduction of Dutch in schools and universities in the 1930s, the relocation of the biggest French speaking university (the French speaking section of Louvain University) from Flanders into Wallonia in 1968, and the installation of a federal state structure with a Flemish government during the last quarter of the 20th century. It took nearly 2 centuries for the Flemish to be considered as full-fledged citizens in their own country, and one can easily imagine that this struggle didn't occur without a heavy social and political toll.
Foreigners may find some facts highly difficult to understand:
1. to discern the emancipatory cultural and political struggle of Flemish people against a French speaking ruling minority, from a so called war between Flanders and Wallonia. Never during 15 centuries of history there was any conflict between the North and the South, a remarkable fact in history. In fact, there are 4 kinds of Belgians: (1) The Dutch speaking majority in the North ("Flanders"), (2) the French speaking in the South ("Wallonia"), (3) French speaking people, mostly from Flemish origin, in Brussels -entirely situated in Flanders and only frenchized during the 19th century- and some around Brussels and some important Flemish cities. These people never do consider themselves as Walloon! They bear Flemish names, and most often their grandparents didn't even understand French. And, (4) a German speaking minority near the German border, added to Belgium after the World Wars. "Language struggles in Belgium" always refer to cultural and social emancipatory struggles of Flemish people within Flanders against a French speaking minority in Flanders (including Brussels). Those struggles only sought to allow Flemish people to use, within Flanders, their own Dutch language in education, justice, social life and politics. Wallonia never was involved in this social and cultural emancipative struggle. 2. to discern between 'Dutch' and 'Flemish'. Although by a certain love of ease some people in Belgium speak about "Flemish" (like Dutch people sometimes call their language "Hollandish", American speak about "American", etc.), there is only one language for Flanders (the Southern Netherlands) and Holland (the Northern Netherlands). Also historically and politically, the "Netherlands" (plural!) referred to the 17 Provinces of contemporary Benelux, including the Lille Region in the North of France. There exist, as everywhere, some dialectic differences, but educated people are not supposed to show such. Moreover, the official Dutch Language is closer to the southern than to the northern dialects, due to the fact that the Bible -the origin of official language- was translated mainly by southern immigrants to the North. Dutch in Belgium was banned from official life during the 19th century and parts of the 20th. As a consequence it was not often heard in public life (although poets and authors published their highly qualified work in Dutch). Moreover, the ruling French speaking minority was pleased to call that language of uneducated people "Flemish". Even in the 1920s, the archbishop of Belgium, enraged by the legal obligation to switch to Dutch in Flemish schools and universities, called 'Flemish' "unfit as a vehicle for scientific, religious, cultural and artistic values". We deplore the fact that even in outstanding modern Encyclopaedias of neighbouring cultures (French, English) the language of the Flemish people is too often called "Flemish, a language akin to Dutch".
Flanders Today: probably the most prosperous region in the world
In July 2002 the development program of the United Nations calculated that Belgium is the fourth most prosperous country in the world.This was measured by determining the degree of prosperity of about 173 countries. To determine the degree of prosperity they determined health, longevity, education - economic level and quality of life. The Flemish Administration Service of Planning and Statistics applied the same parameters to determine the prosperity level of Flanders, i.e. the northern part of Belgium. According to these findings Flanders might share with Norway the title of the most prosperous region in the world.
CULTURAL CONTRIBUTIONS
For such a small region, Flanders was surprisingly fertile in cultural and scientific contributions to Western culture. It would be interesting, from a sociocultural point of view, to study this phenomenon that, of course, occurred in other places and moments in history as well.
It could perhaps be explained by several psychological, social and economic factors, including: a cross-fertilization between Latin and Germanic ways of thinking, a fertile region, an early rupture with suffocating feudal situations, attraction of many European businessmen and patrons, a self-confident but non-aggressive view of life (the only wars started by the Flemish people were a war for social independence from France in... 1302, and a general upheaval in 1798 against high French taxes and the compulsory conscription of young men into the French army). The recession of the leading Flemish cultural and scientific creativity starting during the 16th century and lasting until the Flemish emancipation during the 20th century is explained by the bloody Spanish suppression of Reformation in the Southern Netherlands, provoking a massive emigration and brain drain to the North, and the successive extortionate occupations by Spanish, Austrian, French and .... (Frenchizing) Belgian dominators (with a short interval during a 15 year re-union with the North, vehemently disapproved of by the Catholic Church).
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Brussels today
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Until deep into the nineteenth century, Brussel was a Flemish city. As was usual in the other Flemish cities, the top layer of the population used French, but, different from what happened in the other cities, where the Flemish emancipation removed French in favour for Dutch, in Brussel, French kept being used, and eventually the whole city became French-speaking.
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The language laws of 1963 gave Brussel a bi-cultural status. This means that in theory, both French and Dutch should be treated equally, and that a citizen should see no difference at the town-hall whether he uses Dutch or French. In practice, the Frenchification pressure even increased, and monolingual French-speaking civil servants are more the rule than the exception.
Public Hospitals
A survey held in 1994, showed that 58% of the Dutch-speaking patients in Brussel's OCMW hospitals had to switch to French to make theirselves understandable for the personel, including the treating doctor. One fourth of every hospitalized in Brussel comes from Vlaams-Brabant (Flemish Brabant), and normally, no monolingual doctor should be appointed in these hospitals. Every such appointment is annulled by the State Council, but the OCMWs involved never react.
Cable Companies
Also Brussel's cable companies help to Frenchify the city. The Dutch television station Nederland 3 was removed from cable, and the Dutch-spoken pay-TV SuperSport never made it to the cable, because the rent was too high. In practice, only 1% of the subscribers in Brussel are Flemish, but the rent is calculated for a reach of 10%. Canal Plus, the French-spoken counterpart of FilmNet, of which it can be assumed that it reaches far more subscribers, pays only for a reach of 7,5%! Since 1993, FilmNet is paying the same amount as Canal Plus, but proportianally, this is still too high. The cause for this problem is that the cable companies in Brussel are afraid that they may anger French speaking subscribers by putting too many Flemish or Dutch stations on the cable.
Brussels and an Independent Flanders.
Often, Brussel is called upon as the surplus value of Flanders in Belgium: if Flanders would leave Belgium, it would lose Brussel. Not erveryone agrees on that.
The Flemish People's Movement (VVB, Vlaamse Volksbeweging) voted six resolutions in 1994 on this subject. It should be noted that the VVB is part of the separatistic wing of the Flemish movement, and advocates the proclamation of a Flemish Republic.
Flanders should make, now and with great speed, a Brussel-project, supported by a wide Flemish majority, and use all political means to realize that project.
Every Belgian option leads virtually to a definitive loss of Brussel. If we still have interests in Brussel, and want to try to reverse the negative developmments regarding Brussel, we have to look for solutions outside the Belgian context.
Because sociologically, Flanders has to lean on Brussel for its capital function, because of the economical surplus value Brussel can offer to Flanders, because Brussel can help shine the splendour of the Dutch language and culture in Europe, because we have historical rights in Brussel, because of the broad Flemish presence in Brussel and the location of the city in the heart of Flanders, the VVB thinks that all democratic means should be used to the utmost to strengthen the bond between Brussel and Flanders.
After inspection of all possible alternative scenarios, the VVB considers the independance of Flanders as the best means to gain Brussel for Flanders.
Brussel should structurally be fit into Flanders in way attractive to both Flanders and Brussel. - Brussel is the capital city of Flanders
- Brussel, confined to the 19 municipalities, obtains a bilibgual (Dutch and french) status
- the French-speaking inhabitants of Brussel are full Flemish citizens
- the French-speaking inhabitants will have their own structures where they can exercise some specific authorities, amongst others eductaion and culture
The VVB bases its strategy for Brussel both on positive exercise of power and seduction. The congres instructs the leaders of the VVB - to start actions to promote the use of the Dutch language and to push the Flemish government to take initiatives for this purpose
- to urge the Flemish government to enforce the legislation of language use correctly and specifically, and to install a commission for that purpose
- to insist at the Flemish government on installing a `Commission for the Flemish presence in Brussel'. This commission will have as its task to study the Flemish presence in Brussel and to hand in policy bills.
- to push the Flemish government fo a policy agreement between the Dutch-speaking inside and outside Brussel
- to start a preparing discussion with representative Flemish-speaking inhabitants of Brussel in view of the integration of Brussel into a Flemish state
In the accompanying text, the VVB explains its standpoint. First of all, the thesis that Flanders will lose Brussel when becoming independent, assumes that we can keep or even (partly) regain Brussel staying in Belgium. It points out that Belgium is the cause of the Frenchification of Brussel in the first place.
Clearly, Flanders and Brussel need each other more than Brussel and Wallonia. Geo-politically speaking, it is obvious that Brussel lies in the heart of Flanders, completely surrounded by Flemish territory. A glance on a road map learns that most of Brussel's ring lies on Flemish territory, and a Brussel outside of Flanders would surely choke in traffical chaos. Also by railroad or by air, Brussel is only reachable through Flanders; the airport of Zaventem (Brussel-National) is situated in Flanders.
Brussel doesn't belong to Wallonia. The French-speaking inhabitants of Brussel aren't Walloon immigrants, but Frenchified Flemmings. The French-speaking part of Brussel votes in a different way from Wallonia, and the Walloon movement never got a grip on Brussel's population. And finally, Wallonia didn't chose Brussel as its capital city, like Flanders did, but chose Namur in stead.
Economically speaking, only inside Flanders Brussel has a future. Of the 330,000 commuters coming to Brussel daily, 280,000 are Flemish. This means that during the day, Brussel is Flanders' largest city. Brussel cannot finance its network of roads on its own, and is already now depending on Flanders for it. The industrial belt lies outside the 19 municipalities, from Groot-Bijgaarden and Zellik over Vilvoorde and Machelen to Diegem and Zaventem. Brussel as an independent enclave would become a sort of European Washington DC, a city stuffed with offices, and between them impoverished quarters with at its borders some residential districts.
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Language Facilities
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In Belgium, some communes along the linguistic border have language facilities. The best known ones are the Six around Brussel, Voeren and Komen. The first seven are Flemish communes with facilities for French-speaking inhabitants, whereas the last one is a Walloon commune with facilities for the Flemish.
Besides these eight communes, there are some other communes with facilities. But with the exception of the city of Ronse, they all are rather small. Problems are very rare, maybe mostly because they are not of great geo-political importance.
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The Six around Brussels
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The Six are the six communes in the border around Brussel, where facilities have been granted to French-speaking inhabitants, namely Wemmel,
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Kraainem , Wezembeek-Oppem, Drogenbos, Linkebeekand Sint-Genesius-Rode. From time to time, the FDF (Front Démocratique des Francophones, Democratic Front of the French-speaking) pleas for an extension of the facilities to the communes of Tervuren, Hoeilaart and Overijse, now still Flemish communes.
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Language Facilities: Transitional Measures
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The French-speaking inhabitants moved to these communes mainly in the fifties and the sixties, fleeing from the city of Brussel into the Flemish suburbs. Originally, the facilities were meant to be transitional measures, so the French-speaking inhabitants could adopt theirselves to the Flemish (and therefore Dutch-spoken) character of the region. That was how it was planned to be in 1963, but over the years, the facilities have been used to a further Frenchification and a take-over of the political power in the communes.
In accordance with the agreement of 1973, the Flemish Community pays subsidies to the French-speaking primary schools in the communes. This means that the Flemish Community guarantees infrastructure, and pays for operational and personnel costs. In 1995, this amounted to a total of almost 5,45 million euro. At the same time, the French Community is responsible for the pedagogical quality of the education. The instruction in Dutch language classes is being neglected grossly, in contrast to the fact that knowledge of this language should be considered important in these Flemish communes.
Until 1988, the legal situation of the Six didn't change much, in spite of the constitutional reforms of 1970 and 1980. However, in 1988, the facilities were buoyed, in exchange for the protection of the Flemish through so-called consensus-deputies. The facilities are buoyed, in the sense that it will be practically impossible in the future to abolish them. First of all, a two-third majority will be needed in the federal parliament, and on top of that a majority in the parliaments of the Flemish and French (Walloon) communities. Even if a two-third majority could be found in the federal parliament, it still is very much doubtable that a majority would also be found in the French parliament, unless other severe Flemish bargains would be coupled to them.
At the occasion of the celebrations of the 11th of July in 1995, the Flemish minister-president Luc van den Brande and the governor of Vlaams-Brabant Lode de Witte made an appeal to abolish the facilities, because they didn't reach their goal. This caused furious reactions in Brussel's French-speaking circles and by the Walloon politicians, who even mentioned ethnic cleansing. Philippe Moureaux , maire of Molenbeek and former vice-prime minister for the PS (Parti Socialiste, the Walloon Socialist Party), reacted saying the Walloons would demand a bi-regional status both for the Six as well as for Voeren at future communautarian negotiations.
About one year later, in April 1996, Luc van den Brande proposed that the Flemish Region would regulate the language facilities, if they would continue to exist at all. He wanted to achieve this by moving the law organizing the municipalities and provinces from the federal level to the regional level.
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Kraainem
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The Frenchification of the commune of Kraainem already started before World War II. In Walloon train stations, posters were hung out urging to come and live in Kraainem. The Academic Hospital Saint-Luc in the nearby Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe aided in the Frenchification as well, because lots of the monolingual French-speaking physicians used to live in Kraainem.
In 1963, Kraainem became one of the six communes with facilities. Communal councils used to be strictly French-spoken. At regular times, the French-speaking majority voted motions pleaing for an affixture of the commune to Brussel with a fully bilingual status.
These last years, the communal councils are again held completely in Dutch, but another evolution is now threatening the Dutch-speaking inhabitants. The attraction of Brussel as the European capital and the presence of the NATO in Evere is the cause of a sharp increase of the rents. Because of this, a lot of young Flemish families have to flee the commune, looking for affordable housing somewhere else. Nowadays, almost 23% of the population of the commune is of foreign origin.
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Linkebeek
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In April 1996, the municipal council of Linkebeek agreed on a cooperation pact with the commune of Ukkel in Brussel's Capital Region. Both communes would cooperate in the fields of education, recreation, public works, fire-watch, economics, etc... The cooperation went so far, that it meant a de facto fusion of both communes. It is quite normal that neighbouring communes cooperate, but in this case, the distinction between the two communes was almost made invisible.
It is clear that this was more than a normal approach between two neighbouring communes. The obvious purpose was an affixture of the commune to the bilingual Brussel's Capital Region, which in effect would be a huge expansion of the facilities to the French-speaking of Linkebeek. On the higher level, the borders between Brussel's Capital Region and the Flemish Region would fade away. Doing so, the strictly monolingual character of the Flemish Region would be seriously damaged. And finally, an affixture of Linkebeek to Brussel would also mean the first step in order to get a corridor from Brussel to the Walloon Region, an intolerable nightmare for Flanders.
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Komen
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This commune with language facilities was turned over to the province of Hainaut, like Voeren was turned over to Limburg. Doing so, the commune received language facilities for the Dutch-speaking. Not surprisingly, what wasn't possible in the other communes with facilities did happen here: the linguistic minority seems to have adopted almost completely to the linguistic majority. The whole commune is almost completely Frenchified, althought it originally was a Flemish commune.
As a municipality at the language border, the municipality should provide buildings and grounds for the Flemish primary school. This is also the case in Voeren, where the commune provides buildings and grounds for the Walloon primary school, and in the communes with facilities in the border around Brussel. The Flemish government pays altogether 5,58 million euro to French schools on its own territory. The French Community however nowhere pays a single Franc for Dutch education on its territory.
The martyrdom of this Flemish school in Komen started in 1979, when 24 Flemish parents decided to start a primary and infant school, in accordance with the law of 1963. The French-speaking minister of Education, Jacques Hoyaux refused, and the school became a state affair. Eventually, the school could start, in exchange for the very contested autoroute Pecq-Armentières, which would connect Komen with Wallonia going over Flemish territory. But in 1981, Philippe Busquin decided that the school be closed. At a certain point, the Flemish tots had to run the gauntlet with their mothers along rows of hysterical women. In the end, the Flemish minister of Education decided to subsidize the school, that is, in conflict with the law of 1963. It was housed in the garden of the Flemish cultural centre of Komen.
Every building request since then has caused endless procedural troubles. The number of pupils has grown from 23 at the start to 60 at the end of 1995. The school simply is to small, but all building requests are turned down by the Walloon authorities. In August 1995, the Administration of Urbanisation stated that the school could not be extended using prefab buildings, having received a negative advice from Komen's municipal council. This was obviously a sophism, since the French school, only a few yards away, did receive such a permission to use prefab buildings. However, the administration said that the school was allowed to extend if it uses brick walls. First of all, this would cost about ten times as much, but more important, it would not be possible to recuperate the costs if the school would be obliged to move somewhere else. This last possibility is not completely hypothetical, since the school has to rent the estate, and as soon as a good reason could be found, the school can be chased away.
On the 4th of September 1995, the Flemish minister of Education Luc van den Bossche and the French minister of Urbanisation Michel Lebrun came to terms, so the school could finally extend. The solution is that the ARGO (Autonome Raad voor het GemeenschapsOnderwijs, Autonomous Council of Community Education) will present a building request using brick walls, and will pay the extra costs, which amounts to almost 125.000 euro.
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Voeren
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Voeren is a Flemish enclave, squeezed between the Walloon province of Liège and the Netherlands. Before the language laws, it actually was a part of the province of Liège, but it was turned over to the province of Limburg later on. In exchange, Komen became a part of Hainaut. Both communes got the status of commune with language facilities, just like the Six around Brussel.
The French-speaking group in the commune has formed a political movement, called Action Fouronnaise (Voeren's Action), and runs at municipal elections under the name of Retour à Liège (Return to Liège). As the names says, they strive for a return to the province of Liège, and a French-speaking status. The head of this movement is José Happart , also member of the Parti Socialiste (the Walloon Socialist Party PS), on which he had some influence until recently. Up till now, this movement received a full majority in the municipal council, though at the last electiosn in 1994, they received a majority of only one seat. For the future, it looks like there will be a Flemish majority after the elections of 2000.
Voeren's "merry-go-round" has been a constant in Belgian politics whenever there are communautarian problems. Usually, the Walloon parties threaten that José Happart would become maire of the commune, as a monolingual French-speaking, if one or another demand isn't met. In practice, it turns out that Flemings meet some structural demand, both in Voeren and on other problems, in exchange for the Walloon symbolic indulgence that José Happart won't become maire for the time being.
Most probably, this method will soon be used again, because of fears that the Flemish will held a majority in the municipal council after the elections of 2000. In July 1995, former vice-prime minister for the PS Philippe Moureaux said that the Walloons will demand a bi-regional status for Voeren at the next round of communautarian negotiations. This could have as a result that, if elected, the Flemish majority won't be able to do much in Voeren, so that a further Flemishing of the communes will be stopped.
Before 1963, more than 90% of the population spoke a local dialect, which surely could be considered to be a Dutch dialect. The Church masses all were in Dutch, and the language used at school was exclusively Dutch everywhere. Only in Remersdael an exception to this existed, namely the so-called "transmutation classes". Lots of children followed primary school partly or completely in a school in a Walloon neighbouring commune though. An even bigger part, possibly the majority, followed secondary school in French, in Visé or Herve. The main reason was that it was closer to home, and that parents thought that you had to know French for your professional carreer. This didn't mean that the parents were pro-Liège. A lot of pro-Flemish inhabitants followed secondary school in French, and had later usually also their higher education in French. Only the most pro-Flemish parents sent their children to schools in Tongeren or other Flemish schools, but usually this meant, because of the geographical isolation of Voeren, boarding-school. There was one exception: a French boarding-school for girls in 's-Gravenvoeren, but most of the pupils there came from outside Voeren. Some of them even came from the Netherlands, since girls were sent to Belgium especially to learn French.
French-speaking schools did not appear until after the turn-over of Voeren to Limburg. This transfer worked - how paradoxal this may sound - as a catalyst for the Frenchification of Voeren. An important reason for this were the old relations between local notables and the politicians in Liège. The Flemish politicians rather were related to inhabitants represented in the opposition of the municipal council or in corporate life in the communes. So, those local notables saw that their relations, which are very important for a local politician, turned worthless. They initiated the resistance against the turn-over, and those belonging to their party followed them in this. The constrast pro-Liège/pro-Flanders is thus a consequence of old municipal politics. And to which party you belonged depended on random factors like family or corporate life, more than on which language you spoke at home. Many families were (are) divided by this language war, because brothers and sisters in one family did not necessarily belong to the same local political party.
This contrast is by far the most important reason for the later lingual split. The Dutch antropologue, Hans van Laar , made an excellent study [VLA88], in particular about 's-Gravenvoeren, and showed that it goes back to the period between the two World Wars. Even though everybody still spoke the same language at that point of time, the "separation in minds" started then. Some of the inhabitants thought that good patriots were by definition French-speaking. Still, the French-speaking inhabitants call their Dutch-speaking fellow-villagers to easily "fascist".
Other factors are less important, even though they are often raised, especially in pro-Flemish circles. As an example: the dependence of tenants versus the French-speaking landlords (probaly only in the East of the region of importance), and employment in Wallonia (lots of pro-Flemish inhabitants of Voeren work in the environs of Liège, and actually are most wanted because they are perfectly bilingual).
Of course, economical factors had also their part in it. Farmers sold their cattle mostly to Walloon cattle-dealers. Most of the villagers did their shopping in Aubel, where they often still could speak their own dialect, in Herve, Visé or Liège, but also in Maastricht (the Netherlands). Employment meant in the first place a job in the environs of Liège, more than in the Netherlands, and not at all in Belgian Limburg, which, for most of the inhabitants of Voeren, was far away and unknown territory. This means that most of the villagers were used to speak French, and found it normal that you had to learn that language. Moreover, in the thirthies, the municipal council pressed the point at the province of Liège that education of French in the schools of Voeren be intensified. But the provincial council rejected the request at that time...
Most of the inhabitants of Voeren knew the Dutch standard language only from school or church. Church services were exclusively in Dutch, and basically still are. Only in Remersdael there are French-spoken masses, and at "personal matters" (a wedding for example), people can request for a French-spoken service. As a consequence, most of the pro-Liège who go to church, follow church services outside Voeren.
There is one more important indication of the language ratios in Voeren in the sixties, namely the "language-referenda" of 1947. Belgium knew since its independence such language-censuses, but particularly after World War I, these evolved into referenda. These censuses were responsible for the shift to the North of the language border every decade. They opened the door for what then was called "progress", namely Frenchification. (Where could you get in the world if you only knew that Flemish of the peasants?) In this way, the amount of French-speaking in Voeren rose from 18% in 1930 to 52% in 1947. In other villages, the same impossible results were obtained. That's why Flanders demanded the abolition of these censuses, which eventually led to the constitutional fixation of the language border.
In 1963, the separation of minds in Voeren was already complete, even though the pro-Liège of Voeren could hardly be considered to be French-speaking or Walloon. But the Flemish politicians underestimated everything badly. They thought that the pro-Liège would put up with the turn-over after some grumbling. Maybe they would have done so, if Flanders would have reacted a bit more diplomatically, and would have sought for cooperation with the local notables. Now, 33 years later, the pro-Liège have become real French-speaking. On the other hand, the other local political party has become Flemish in the same way, in the sense that they now consider themselves as citizens of the Flemish region. Surely, there hasn't been a "flamandisation" of Voeren, but the Flemish reflexes have been increased strongly at that halve of the population.
The ratios haven't changed much since then. Although the ratios may vary from village to village, for all six villages together, the ratio is about 60:40 in pro-Liège/pro-Flemish. This ratio has shifted a bit in favour of the pro-Flemish recently, but this may have more to do with the frustation of some pro-Liège over the neglection of the municipal policy by the council, in which the pro-Liège hold a majority. Maybe that the input of the 13% Dutchmen at the elections in 2000 may tilt the scales.
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Border around Brussels
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It seems that the frenchification doesn't want to stop at the municipalities with facilities. For the moment, the municipalities of Overijse, Hoeilaart and Tervuren are threatened as well, a threat which is amplified by the attracting force of Brussel as the capital city of the European Union.
The UDF (Union des Francophones, Union of the French-speakers) has three elected members in the provincial council of Vlaams-Brabant, two of them from the district of Halle-Vilvoorde, and one from the district of Leuven. The last one got elected mainly by the votes coming from Hoeilaart, together with some votes coming from area bordering Brabant wallon. The same party has an MP in the Flemish Parliament, elected in the district of Halle-Vilvoorde.
The group UDF openly admits it wants the Frenchspeaking people in the border around Brussel to be recognized as an ethnic minority, and announced it would would start a procedure in the European Parliament to acquire such recognition. If they would succeed, that would mean a major blow to the monolingual Dutch-spoken charactre of this region.
But even regardless of that, it would be an absurdity that they would be recognized as such. As a matter of fact, they all are Walloon French-speaking immigrants, who came to this region only a few decades ago, and never wanted to adopt to the local community. The MP for the UDF in the Flemish Parliament, Christian van Eyken , is an ethnic Flemming, born in Bonheiden near the city of Mechelen, but married to a Walloon and now even maire of Linkebeek for the FDF, one of the municipalities with facilities. In a brochure distributed in Linkebeek , he says he wants the facilities in the end to be extended to the whole of the Flemish community.
Furthermore, a little paper called Carrefour is being distributed in some 34 municipalities. This paper is an aggressive, French militant initiative, having as its dream the complete Frenchification of the Flemish border. The worst part is that it is distributed freely and unasked for, in every letter-box. During the election campaign, it called upon its readers to vote for the UDF. One could also speak about Walloon interference in Flemish territory, for the French Community subsidizes this paper, under the cloak of propagating the French culture.
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It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people
~ Giordano Bruno
Last edited by Waarnemer; Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 at 14:01.
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Thursday, July 3rd, 2008
Figure 2 - Number of judges in Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde by language and bilinguality: Dutch-speaking (light and dark blue), French-speaking (light and dark red), bilingual (dark blue and red) and monolingual (light blue and red) 
Figure 3 - Graphical representation of the figures from 
Figure 5 - Support for separatism, divided per state form 
Figure 6 - Support for separatism, devided per Region