Frenchification of Brussels - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Frenchification of Brussels is the transformation of Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

, Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

, from a Dutch

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

-speaking city to one that is bilingual or even multilingual, with French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

as both the majority language and lingua franca

Lingua franca

A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...

. The dominant aspect of this transition was the shift from Dutch to French among local Flemish

Flemish people

The Flemings or Flemish are the Dutch-speaking inhabitants of Belgium, where they are mostly found in the northern region of Flanders. They are one of two principal cultural-linguistic groups in Belgium, the other being the French-speaking Walloons...

residents over several generations, though immigration of French-speakers and international immigration also played a role.

The transition began gradually in the 18th century, but accelerated after the Belgian Revolution

Belgian Revolution

The Belgian Revolution was the conflict which led to the secession of the Southern provinces from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and established an independent Kingdom of Belgium....

, with Brussels as the capital of newly independent Belgium. In spite of the Dutch-speaking majority, French was made the sole official language, and French was the language of the government, the courts, culture, the media and education. The Dutch language had a low social prestige in Belgium at the time, and knowledge of French was considered necessary for social advancement. The massive shift from Dutch to French was underway by the late 19th century. At first there was a surge in the number of bilingual residents, mostly native Dutch speakers who had learned how to speak French, at the expense of monolingual Dutch speakers. As Dutch was often not passed down from one generation to another, the number of monolingual francophones in Brussels grew considerably. Halfway through the 20th century, the number of monolingual French-speakers surpassed the number of bilingual French/Dutch speakers.

In the 1960s the Belgian language border was fixed, limiting official bilingualism to the 19 municipalities of Brussels. As Flanders

Flanders

Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

prospered economically and Dutch regained its prestige, the Frenchification of Dutch speakers effectively ceased. Nonetheless, during the second half of the 20th century, Brussels became an increasingly prosperous and international city, and this internationalization brought an influx of foreign immigrants who favoured French or foreign languages rather than Dutch. Simultaneously, as Brussels' urban area expanded, a further number of formerly Dutch-speaking municipalities in surrounding Flanders became predominantly French-speaking. This phenomenon is, together with the future of Brussels, one of the most controversial topics in all of Belgian politics.

Middle Ages

Around the year 1000, the County of Brussels became a part of the Duchy of Brabant

Duchy of Brabant

The Duchy of Brabant was a historical region in the Low Countries. Its territory consisted essentially of the three modern-day Belgian provinces of Flemish Brabant, Walloon Brabant and Antwerp, the Brussels-Capital Region and most of the present-day Dutch province of North Brabant.The Flag of...

(and therefore of the Holy Roman Empire

Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...

) with Brussels as one of the four capitals of the Duchy, along with Leuven

Leuven

Leuven is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region, Belgium...

, Antwerp, and 's-Hertogenbosch. Dutch was the main language of Brussels, as was the case in the other three cities. Not all of Brabant, however, was Dutch-speaking. The area south of Brussels, around the town of Nivelles

Nivelles

Nivelles is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant. The Nivelles municipality includes the old communes of Baulers, Bornival, Thines, and Monstreux....

, was a French-speaking area roughly corresponding to the modern province of Walloon Brabant

Walloon Brabant

Walloon Brabant is a province of Wallonia in Belgium. It borders on the province of Flemish Brabant and the provinces of Liège, Namur and Hainaut . Its capital is Wavre...

.

Initially in Brussels as well as other parts of Europe, Latin was used as an official language. From the late 13th century, people began to shift usage to the vernacular

Vernacular

A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...

. This occurrence took place in Brussels and then in other Brabantian cities, which had all eventually transformed by the 16th century. Official city orders and proclamations were thenceforth gradually written in Middle Dutch

Middle Dutch

Middle Dutch is a collective name for a number of closely related West Germanic dialects which were spoken and written between 1150 and 1500...

. Until the late 18th century, Dutch remained the administrative language of the Brussels area of the Duchy of Brabant. As part of the Holy Roman Empire

Holy Roman Empire

, Brabantian cities enjoyed many freedoms, including choice of language. Before 1500, there were almost no French documents in the Brussels city archives. By comparison the cities in the neighboring Duchy of Flanders such as Bruges

Bruges

Bruges is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country....

, Ghent

Ghent

Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...

, Kortrijk

Kortrijk

Kortrijk ; , ; ) is a Belgian city and municipality located in the Flemish province West Flanders...

and Ypres

Ypres

Ypres is a Belgian municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Ypres and the villages of Boezinge, Brielen, Dikkebus, Elverdinge, Hollebeke, Sint-Jan, Vlamertinge, Voormezele, Zillebeke, and Zuidschote...

the percentage of French documents in city archives fluctuated between 30% and 60%. Such high level of French influence had not yet developed in the Dutch-speaking areas of the Duchy of Brabant, including Brussels.

After the death of Joanna, Duchess of Brabant

Joanna, Duchess of Brabant

Joanna, Duchess of Brabant , also known as Jeanne, was the heiress of Duke John III, who died in Brussels, December 5, 1355. Her mother was Marie d'Évreux.- Family :...

, in 1406, the Duchy of Brabant became a part of the Duchy of Burgundy

Duchy of Burgundy

The Duchy of Burgundy , was heir to an ancient and prestigious reputation and a large division of the lands of the Second Kingdom of Burgundy and in its own right was one of the geographically larger ducal territories in the emergence of Early Modern Europe from Medieval Europe.Even in that...

and the use of the French language increased in the region. In 1477, Burgundian duke Charles the Bold perished in the Battle of Nancy

Battle of Nancy

The Battle of Nancy was the final and decisive battle of the Burgundian Wars, fought outside the walls of Nancy on 5 January 1477 between Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and René II, Duke of Lorraine...

. Through the marriage of his daughter Mary of Burgundy

Mary of Burgundy

Mary of Burgundy ruled the Burgundian territories in Low Countries and was suo jure Duchess of Burgundy from 1477 until her death...

to Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I

Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

Maximilian I , the son of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor and Eleanor of Portugal, was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1493 until his death, though he was never in fact crowned by the Pope, the journey to Rome always being too risky...

, the Low Countries

Low Countries

The Low Countries are the historical lands around the low-lying delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers, including the modern countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and parts of northern France and western Germany....

fell under Habsburg

Habsburg

The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...

sovereignty. Brussels became the capital of the Burgundian Netherlands

Burgundian Netherlands

In the history of the Low Countries, the Burgundian Netherlands refers to a number of Imperial and French fiefs ruled in personal union by the House of Valois-Burgundy and their Habsburg heirs in the period from 1384 to 1482...

, also known as the Seventeen Provinces

Seventeen Provinces

The Seventeen Provinces were a personal union of states in the Low Countries in the 15th century and 16th century, roughly covering the current Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, a good part of the North of France , and a small part of Western Germany.The Seventeen Provinces were originally held by...

. After the death of Mary in 1482 her son Philip the Handsome

Philip I of Castile

Philip I , known as Philip the Handsome or the Fair, was the first Habsburg King of Castile...

succeeded as the Duke of Brabant. In 1506 he became the king of Castile

Castile (historical region)

A former kingdom, Castile gradually merged with its neighbours to become the Crown of Castile and later the Kingdom of Spain when united with the Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Navarre...

, and hence the period of the Spanish Netherlands began.

Spanish rule

After 1531, Brussels was known as the Princely Capital of the Netherlands. After the division of the Netherlands resulting from the Eighty Years' War and in particular from the fall of Antwerp to the Spanish forces, the economic and cultural centers of the Netherlands migrated to the northern Dutch Republic

Dutch Republic

The Dutch Republic — officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands , the Republic of the United Netherlands, or the Republic of the Seven United Provinces — was a republic in Europe existing from 1581 to 1795, preceding the Batavian Republic and ultimately...

. About 150,000 people, mainly stemming from the intellectual and economic elites, fled to the north. Brabant and Flanders were engulfed in the Counter-Reformation

Counter-Reformation

The Counter-Reformation was the period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War, 1648 as a response to the Protestant Reformation.The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort, composed of four major elements:#Ecclesiastical or...

, and the Catholic priests continued to perform the liturgy

Mass (liturgy)

"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...

in Latin.

Dutch was seen as the language of Calvinism

Calvinism

Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...

and was thus considered to be anti-Catholic. In the context of the Counter-Reformation

Counter-Reformation

, many clerics of the Low Countries had to be educated at the French-speaking University of Douai

University of Douai

The University of Douai is a former university in Douai, France. With a Middle Ages heritage of scholar activities in Douai, the university was established in 1559 and lectures started in 1562. It closed from 1795 to 1808...

. However, Dutch was not utterly excluded in the religious domain. For instance, Ferdinand Brunot

Ferdinand Brunot

Ferdinand-Eugène-Jean-Baptiste Brunot was a French linguist and philologist, editor of the ground-breaking Histoire de la langue française des origines à 1900 ....

reported that, 1638 in Brussels, the Jesuits "preached

Sermon

A sermon is an oration by a prophet or member of the clergy. Sermons address a Biblical, theological, religious, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law or behavior within both past and present contexts...

three times a week in Flemish and twice in French". While Dutch became standardized by the Dutch Republic, dialects continued to be spoken in the south. As in other places in Europe during the 17th century, French grew as a language of the nobility and upper class of society. The languages used in the central administration during this time were both French and, to a lesser extent, Spanish. Some French-speaking nobility established themselves in the hills of Brussels (in the areas of Coudenberg

Coudenberg

Coudenberg or Koudenberg is a small hill in Brussels where the Palace of Coudenberg was built.For nearly 700 years, the Castle and then the Palace of Coudenberg were the seat of government of the counts, dukes, archdukes, kings, emperors and governors who from the 11th century until its...

and Zavel), bringing with them primarily French-speaking Walloon

Walloons

Walloons are a French-speaking people who live in Belgium, principally in Wallonia. Walloons are a distinctive community within Belgium, important historical and anthropological criteria bind Walloons to the French people. More generally, the term also refers to the inhabitants of the Walloon...

personnel. This attracted a considerable number of other Walloons to Brussels who came either in search of work. This Walloon presence led to the adoption of Walloon

Walloon language

Walloon is a Romance language which was spoken as a primary language in large portions of the Walloon Region of Belgium and some villages of Northern France until the middle of the 20th century. It belongs to the langue d'oïl language family, whose most prominent member is the French language...

words in the Brussels flavour of Brabantian Dutch

Brabantian

Brabantian or Brabantish, also Brabantic , is a dialect group of the Dutch language. It is named after the historical Duchy of Brabant which corresponded mainly to the Dutch province of North Brabant, the Belgian provinces of Antwerp and Flemish Brabant, as well as the institutional Region of...

, but the Walloon presence was still too small to prevent them from being assimilated into the Dutch-speaking majority.

Austrian rule

Following the Treaty of Utrecht

Treaty of Utrecht

The Treaty of Utrecht, which established the Peace of Utrecht, comprises a series of individual peace treaties, rather than a single document, signed by the belligerents in the War of Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht in March and April 1713...

, the Spanish sovereignty over the Southern Netherlands was transferred to the Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg. This event started the era of the Austrian Netherlands.

In the 18th century, there were already complaints about the waning use of Dutch in Brussels, which had been reduced to the status of "street language". There were various reasons for this. The repressive policies of the Habsburgs after the division of the Low Countries and the following exodus of the intellectual elite towards the Dutch Republic left Flanders bereft of its social upper class. After the end of the 17th century Dutch Golden Age

Dutch Golden Age

The Golden Age was a period in Dutch history, roughly spanning the 17th century, in which Dutch trade, science, military and art were among the most acclaimed in the world. The first half is characterised by the Eighty Years' War till 1648...

and the Dutch Republic

Dutch Republic

went into decline, Dutch lost even more prestige as a language for politics, culture, and business. Meanwhile, French culture was spreading fast. For instance, the La Monnaie Theater

La Monnaie

Le Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie , or the Koninklijke Muntschouwburg is a theatre in Brussels, Belgium....

showed 95% of plays in French by the middle of the 18th century. During the War of the Austrian Succession

War of the Austrian Succession

The War of the Austrian Succession – including King George's War in North America, the Anglo-Spanish War of Jenkins' Ear, and two of the three Silesian wars – involved most of the powers of Europe over the question of Maria Theresa's succession to the realms of the House of Habsburg.The...

, between 1745 and 1749, Brussels was under French rule. Under these circumstances, especially after 1780, French became the adopted language of much of the Flemish bourgeoisie

Bourgeoisie

In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...

, who were later pejoratively labelled Franskiljons (loosely: little Frenchies). The lower classes got progressively poorer, and, by 1784, 15% of the population was in poverty. The small French-speaking minority was quite affluent and constituted the social upper class.

The percentage of the Brussels population using French in public life was between 5 and 10 percent in 1760, increasing to 15 percent in 1780. According to authenticated archives and various official documents, it appears that a fifth of municipal declarations and official orders were written in French. Twenty years later this rose to a quarter. However, over half of the official documents in French originated in the French-speaking bourgeoisie, who made up just a tenth of the population. In 1760 small businesses and artisan

Artisan

An artisan is a skilled manual worker who makes items that may be functional or strictly decorative, including furniture, clothing, jewellery, household items, and tools...

s wrote only 3.6 percent of their documents in French; by 1780 this had risen to 12.8 percent. In private life, however, Dutch was still by far the most-used language. For the Austrian Habsburg administration French was the language of communication, although the communiqué from the Habsburgs was seldom seen by commoners of Brussels.

French rule

Following the campaigns of 1794 in the French Revolutionary Wars

French Revolutionary Wars: Campaigns of 1794

The French Revolutionary Wars continued from 1793 with few immediate changes in the diplomatic situation as France fought the First coalition.On the Alpine frontier, there was little change, with the French invasion of Piedmont failing...

, the Low Countries were annexed by the French Republic, ending Habsburg rule in the region. Catholics were heavily repressed by the French, and the French instituted heavy-handed policies that completely paralyzed the Belgian economy. Within this period of systematic exploitation, about 800,000 Belgians fled the Southern Netherlands, and the population of Brussels decreased from 74,000 in 1792 to 66,000 in 1799. The French occupation in Belgium led to further suppression of Dutch across the country, including its abolition as an administrative language. With the motto "one nation, one language", French became the only accepted language in public life, as well as in economic, political, and social affairs. The measures of the successive French governments and in particular the 1798 massive conscription

Conscription

Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...

into the French army were particularly unpopular within the Flemish segment of the population and caused the Peasants' War

Peasants' War (1798)

The Peasants' War was a peasant revolt in 1798 against the French occupation of the Southern Netherlands, including modern Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Germany, during the French Revolutionary Wars.-Luxembourg:...

. The Peasant's War is often seen as the starting point of the modern Flemish movement

Flemish movement

The Flemish Movement is a popular term used to describe the political movement for emancipation and greater autonomy of the Belgian region of Flanders, for protection of the Dutch language, and for the over-all protection of Flemish culture and history....

. From this period until the 20th century, Dutch was seen in Belgium as a language of the poor and illiterate. In Flanders, as well as other areas in Europe, the aristocracy quickly adopted French. The French occupation laid the foundations for a Frenchification of the Flemish middle class aided by an exceptional French-language educational system.

In the beginning of the 19th century the Napoleonic

Napoleonic Era

The Napoleonic Era is a period in the history of France and Europe. It is generally classified as including the fourth and final stage of the French Revolution, the first being the National Assembly, the second being the Legislative Assembly, and the third being the Directory...

Office of Statistics found that Dutch was still the most frequently spoken language in both the Brussels arrondissement and Leuven

Leuven

Leuven is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region, Belgium...

. An exception included a limited number of districts within the city of Brussels, where French had become the most used language. In Nivelles

Nivelles

Nivelles is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant. The Nivelles municipality includes the old communes of Baulers, Bornival, Thines, and Monstreux....

, Walloon

Walloon language

was the most spoken language. Inside of the Small Ring

Small ring (Brussels)

The Brussels small ring or inner ring road is a series of roadways in central Brussels, Belgium, surrounding the historic city centre. It was built on the site of the Second walls of Brussels, built in the 16th century, after they were torn down....

of Brussels, the pentagon, French was the leading language of street markets and of districts such as Coudenberg

Coudenberg

and Sablon/Zavel, while Dutch dominated in the harbor, the Schaarbeek

Schaarbeek

Schaerbeek or Schaarbeek is one of the nineteen municipalities located in the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium. The first mention of the name was Scarenbecca, recorded in a document from the Bishop of Cambrai in 1120...

sepoort area, and the Leuvensepoort area. The first city walls were gradually dismantled during the 15th century to the 17th century, and the outer second walls

Second walls of Brussels

There were two stages of fortifications of Brussels, the first walls, built in the early 13th century, and the second walls, built in the late 14th century and later upgraded. Today, only a few sections of either remain.-First walls:...

(where the Small Ring

Small ring (Brussels)

now stands), were demolished between 1810 and 1840, so that the city could grow and incorporate the surrounding settlements.

Immediately after the French invasion, the use of Dutch was forbidden in the city hall of Brussels. The Frenchification rules, instituted to unify the state, were aimed at the citizens who were to assume power from the nobility as was done in the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

. However, the French conquerors rapidly understood it was not possible to force local populations, speaking languages very different from French, to suddenly use French. The Frenchification of the Dutch-speaking parts of the Low Countries therefore remained limited to the higher levels of the local administration and upper class society. The effect on lower social classes, of whom 60% were illiterate, was small. Life on the streets was greatly affected as, by law, all notices, street names, etc. were required to be written in French, and official documents were to be written solely in French, although "when needed", a non-legally-binding translation could be permitted. Simultaneously, businesses from the rural areas were told not to continue operating if they were not proficient in French. In addition, the law stated that all court pleas, sentences, and other legal materials were to be written solely in French, unless practical considerations made this impossible. These measures increased the percentage of official documents written in French from 60% at the turn of the 19th century to 80% by 1813. Although mainly used by in higher social circles, a more appropriate measure of actual language use might include an observation of written testaments, three-fourths of which in 1804 were written in Dutch, indicating that the upper classes still mainly used Dutch near the turn of the 19th century.

Dutch rule

In 1815, following the final defeat of Napoleon

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...

, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands

United Kingdom of the Netherlands

United Kingdom of the Netherlands is the unofficial name used to refer to Kingdom of the Netherlands during the period after it was first created from part of the First French Empire and before the new kingdom of Belgium split out in 1830...

was created by the Congress of Vienna

Congress of Vienna

The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...

, joining the Southern Netherlands with the former Dutch Republic. Shortly after the formation of the new kingdom, at the request of Brussels businesses, Dutch once again became the official language of Brussels. Nevertheless, the union of the Netherlands and Belgium did little to lessen the political and economic power of French in Flanders, where it remained the language of the aristocracy. Brussels and The Hague

The Hague

The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

were dual capitals of the Kingdom, and in the parliament the Belgian delegates spoke only French. King William I

William I of the Netherlands

William I Frederick, born Willem Frederik Prins van Oranje-Nassau , was a Prince of Orange and the first King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg....

wanted to develop present-day Flanders to the level of the Northern Netherlands, and instituted a wide network of schools in the local language of the people. He made Dutch the single official language of the Flemish provinces, and this was also implemented in bilingual Brabant and Brussels. The Walloon provinces remained monolingually French. The King hoped to make Dutch the sole language of the nation, but the French-speaking citizenry, the Catholic Church, and the Walloons resisted this move. The French-speaking population feared that their opportunities for participation in government were threatened, and that they would become unneeded elements of the new Kingdom. Under pressure from these groups, in 1830 King William I reintroduced a language freedom policy throughout all of present-day Belgium. This nullified the monolingual status of Brussels and the Flemish provinces.

Important for the later development of the Dutch language was that the Flemish population experienced a certain amount of contact with the northern Standard Dutch

Dutch Language Union

The Dutch Language Union is an international institution for discussing issues regarding the Dutch language. It was founded on 9 September 1980 by the Netherlands and Belgium...

during the short reign of the kingdom. The Catholic Church viewed Dutch as a threatening element representative of Protestantism

Protestantism

Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...

, while the Francophone aristocracy still viewed Dutch as a language subordinate to French. These views helped contribute to the Belgian Revolution

Belgian Revolution

The Belgian Revolution was the conflict which led to the secession of the Southern provinces from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and established an independent Kingdom of Belgium....

and to the creation of an independent and officially monolingual Francophone Kingdom of Belgium, established in 1830. This strong preference for French would have a great influence on language use in Brussels.

Belgian Revolution

After the Belgian revolution, the bourgeoisie

Bourgeoisie

in Brussels began to use French more and more. Numerous French and Walloon immigrants moved to Brussels, and for the first time in mass numbers the Flemish people began switching to French.

By October 16, 1830 King William I had already rescinded a policy that named Dutch as the official language of Brussels. The sole official language of the newly created centralized state was French, even though a majority of the population was Flemish. French became the language of the court, the administration, the army, the media, and of culture and education. With more French being spoken, societal progress, culture, and universalism gave it an aura of "respectibility". In contrast, Dutch garnered little consideration and was deemed a language for peasants, farmers, and poor workers. In addition to the geographical language border between Flanders and Wallonia, there was in fact also a social language border between the Dutch-speakers and French-speakers. French was the language of politics and economics and a symbol of upward social mobility. French poet Charles Baudelaire

Charles Baudelaire

Charles Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the nineteenth century...

, during his short stay in Brussels, complained of the hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie at the time:
The new Belgian capital remained a mostly Dutch-speaking city, where the inhabitants spoke a local South Brabantian

Brabantian

dialect. A minority of French-speaking citizens, mainly those who had immigrated from France during the previous decades, constituted 15% of the population. Despite this, the first mayor of Brussels after the revolution, Nicolas-Jean Rouppe

Nicolas-Jean Rouppe

Nicolas-Jean Rouppe was a Belgian liberal politician...

, declared French to be the sole language of administration. The political center of Brussels attracted the economic elite, and Brussels soon acquired French-speaking upper and middle classes. In 1846, 38% of the city declared themselves being French-speaking, while this percentage was 5% in Ghent

Ghent

and 2% in Antwerp. Many supposed French-speakers were actually Flemish bourgeois with Dutch-speaking roots. In 1860, 95% of the Flemish population spoke Dutch, although these people had hardly any economic and political power and deemed a good knowledge of French necessary to attain higher social status and wealth.

Role of education

Brussels attracted many immigrants from Flanders, where economic strife and hunger were widespread. Native Flemish Brussels residents harbored a sense of superiority over the other Flemish immigrants from the poor countryside, which manifested itself in the decision to speak the "superior" French language.

In two or three generations, the new immigrants themselves began to speak French. A typical family might have Dutch-speaking grandparents, bilingual parents, and French-speaking children. The exclusively French educational system played an important role in this changing language landscape. Flemish was mainly ignored as a school subject. From 1842, Dutch disappeared from the first four years of boys' schools, although in later school grades it could be studied. In girls' schools and Catholic schools Dutch was taught even less, even though Dutch was still the native tongue of a majority of the students.

Just after the mayoral inauguration of Charles Buls

Charles Buls

Charles Buls or Karel Buls was a Belgian politician and former mayor of the City of Brussels.-Early life:...

in 1881, elementary school

Elementary school

An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...

s that taught Dutch were reopened in 1883. In these schools, the first two years of lessons were given in Dutch, soon after which students transitioned into French-speaking classes. The proposal by Buls was initially poorly received by the local councils, although they were later accepted when studies showed that when students had acquired a good understanding of Dutch, they more easily obtained French speaking skills. The dominance of French in education was not affected, since most schooling in later years was still in French. Because of the authoritative position that French enjoyed in Belgium and the misconceptions of Buls' plan, many Flemish children were still sent to French school in order to better master the language. This was made possible by the idea of "freedom of the head of household", which stipulated that parents were allowed to send their children to any school they wished, regardless of the child's mother tongue. Since most pupils were sent to French schools rather than Dutch schools, after the end of the First World War there was not a single Dutch class left in central Brussels. In the thirteen municipalities that constituted the Brussels metropolitan area, there were 441 Flemish classes and 1592 French classes, even though the French-speaking population made up just under one third of the total.

As a result of the propagation of the bilingual education system, Dutch was no longer being passed down by many Flemish parents to their children. French was beginning to be used more and more as the main language spoken at home by many Flemings. In Flanders, education played less of a role in Frenchification because most schools continued to teach in Dutch.

French-speaking immigration

During the 19th century, many political asylum seekers sought refuge in Brussels, mainly coming from France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. The first wave came in 1815 bringing Jacobins

Jacobin Club

The Jacobin Club was the most famous and influential political club in the development of the French Revolution, so-named because of the Dominican convent where they met, located in the Rue St. Jacques , Paris. The club originated as the Club Benthorn, formed at Versailles from a group of Breton...

and Bonapartists

Bonapartism

Bonapartism is often defined as a political expression in the vocabulary of Marxism and Leninism, deriving from the career of Napoleon Bonaparte. Karl Marx was a student of Jacobinism and the French Revolution as well as a contemporary critic of the Second Republic and Second Empire...

; a second wave came in 1848 bringing French republicans and Orléanist

Orléanist

The Orléanists were a French right-wing/center-right party which arose out of the French Revolution. It governed France 1830-1848 in the "July Monarchy" of king Louis Philippe. It is generally seen as a transitional period dominated by the bourgeoisie and the conservative Orleanist doctrine in...

s, a third came after the French coup of 1851

French coup of 1851

The French coup d'état on 2 December 1851, staged by Prince Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte , ended in the successful dissolution of the French National Assembly, as well as the subsequent re-establishment of the French Empire the next year...

, and a fourth came in 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War

Franco-Prussian War

The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...

. Asylum seekers and other immigrants also came from other parts of Europe such as Italy, Poland, Germany, and Russia. They preferred to speak French rather than Dutch when they arrived, which further intensified Frenchification.

As the capital of the new kingdom, Brussels also attracted a large number of Walloon migrants. In contrast to Flemish citizens of Brussels, who came primarily from the lower social classes, the Walloon newcomers belonged mainly to the middle class. The Walloon and French migrants lived predominantly in the Marollen

Marollen

Marolles or Marollen is an ancient district of Brussels, situated between the Law Courts of Brussels and the Brussels-South railway station. In the heart of Marollen can be found the Église de la Chapelle/Kapellekerk and the Place du Jeu de balle/Vossenplein...

district of Brussels, where Marols

Marols

Marols or Marollien was a dialect spoken in Brussels. Essentially it is a Dutch dialect incorporating many words of French origin as well as a sprinkling of Spanish dating back to the rule of the Low Countries by the Habsburgs...

, a mixture of Brabantian Dutch, French, and Walloon

Walloon language

, was spoken. Despite the fact that many lower-class Walloons also made their way to Brussels, the perception of French as an intellectual and elite language did not change.
Additionally, Brussels received a considerable number of Frenchified members of the Flemish bourgeoisie.

Between 1830 and 1875 the population of the city of Brussels grew from approximately 100,000 to 180,000; the population of the metropolitan area soared to 750,000 by 1910.

Early Flemish movement in Brussels

In contrast to the rest of Flanders, French in Brussels was seen less as a means of oppression but rather as a tool for social progress. In the first decade after the independence of Belgium, the neglect of Flemish language and culture gradually caused increasingly greater dissatisfaction in the Flemish community. In 1856 the "Grievances Commission" was established to investigate the problems of the Flemings. It was devoted to making the administration, military, educational system and judicial system bilingual, but was politically ignored. Another group to decry the problems of the Flemings was "Vlamingen Vooruit" ("Flemings Forward"), founded in 1858 in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode

Saint-Josse-ten-Noode

Sint-Joost-ten-Node or Saint-Josse-ten-Noode is one of the nineteen municipalities located in the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium....

. Members included Charles Buls

Charles Buls

Charles Buls or Karel Buls was a Belgian politician and former mayor of the City of Brussels.-Early life:...

, mayor of Brussels, and Léon Vanderkindere

Léon Vanderkindere

Léon Vanderkindere was a Belgian historian, academic and politician.Vanderkindere was born in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek into a wealthy middle-class family. His father, Albert Vanderkindere, was a Liberal politician...

, mayor of Uccle

Uccle

Uccle or Ukkel is one of the nineteen municipalities located in the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium.Uccle is known for its well-to-do areas, its green spots and its high rental rates.-History:...

. Although Brussels was 57 percent Dutch speaking in 1880, Flemish primary schools were prohibited until 1883. In 1884, the municipal government decided to allow birth, death, and marriage certificates to be written in Dutch. However, only a tenth of the population made use of these opportunities, suggesting that in the minds of Brussels residents, French was the normal way of conducting these matters. In 1889 Dutch was once again allowed in courtrooms, but only for use in oral testimony

Testimony

In law and in religion, testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter. All testimonies should be well thought out and truthful. It was the custom in Ancient Rome for the men to place their right hand on a Bible when taking an oath...

.

In the late 19th century, the Flemish movement gained even more strength and demanded Belgium be made bilingual. This proposal was rejected by French-speakers, who feared a "Flemishification" of Wallonia as well as the prospect of having to learn Dutch in order to obtain a job in the civil service. The Flemings adapted their goals to the realities of the situation, and devoted themselves to a monolingual Flanders, which Brussels was still socially a part of. The Flemings hoped to limit the spread of French in Flanders by restricting the areas in which French was an official language. In 1873 in the Sint-Jans-Molenbeek district of Brussels, Flemish laborer Jozef Schoep refused to accept a French-language birth certificate. He was ordered to pay a fine of 50 francs

Belgian franc

The franc was the currency of Belgium until 2002 when the euro was introduced into circulation. It was subdivided into centimes , 100 centiem or Centime .-History:...

. His case generated considerable controversy and shortly thereafter the Coremans Law was introduced, which allowed Dutch to be used by Dutch-speakers in court.

In general, the Flemish movement in Brussels did not garner much support for its plans regarding the use of Dutch. Each attempt to promote Dutch and limit the expansion of French influence as a symbol of social status was seen as a means to stifle social mobility rather than as a protective measure as it was seen in the rest of Flanders. Whereas in other Flemish cities such as Ghent

Ghent

in which the Flemish laborers were dominated by a French-speaking upper class, in Brussels it was not as easy to make such a distinction because so many Walloons made up a large portion of the working class. The linguistic heterogeneity, combined with the fact that the most of the upper class of workers spoke French, meant that the class struggle for most workers in Brussels was not seen as a language struggle as well. Ever since the turn of the century

Fin de siècle

Fin de siècle is French for "end of the century". The term sometimes encompasses both the closing and onset of an era, as it was felt to be a period of degeneration, but at the same time a period of hope for a new beginning...

, the workers movement in Brussels defended bilingualism, so as to have a means of emancipation for the local working class. This, along with the educational system, facilitated the Frenchification of thousands of Brussels residents.

Early language laws

By the 1870s, most municipalities were administered in French. With the De Laet law in 1878, a gradual change started to occur. From that point forward, in the provinces of Limburg

Limburg (Belgium)

Limburg is the easternmost province of modern Flanders, which is one of the three main political and cultural sub-divisions of modern Belgium. It is located west of the river Meuse . It borders on the Dutch provinces of North Brabant and Limburg and the Belgian provinces of Liège, Flemish Brabant...

, Antwerp

Antwerp (province)

Antwerp is the northernmost province both of the Flemish Region, also called Flanders, and of Belgium. It borders on the Netherlands and the Belgian provinces of Limburg, Flemish Brabant and East Flanders. Its capital is Antwerp which comprises the Port of Antwerp...

, West Flanders and East Flanders

East Flanders

East Flanders is a province of Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on the Netherlands and in Belgium on the provinces of Antwerp, Flemish Brabant , of Hainaut and of West Flanders...

, and in the arrondissement of Leuven

Leuven

Leuven is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region, Belgium...

, all public communication was given in Dutch or in both languages. For the arrondissement of Brussels, documents could be requested in Dutch. Nonetheless, by 1900 most large Flemish cities, cities along the language border, and the municipalities of the Brussels metropolitan area were still administered in French.

In 1921 the territoriality principle was recognized, which solidified the outline of the Belgian language border. The Flemings hoped that such a language border would help to curb the influx of French in Flanders. Belgium became divided into three language areas: a monolingual Dutch-speaking area in the north (Flanders

Flanders

), a monolingual French-speaking area in the south (Wallonia), and a bilingual area (Brussels), even though the majority of Brussels residents spoke primarily Dutch. The municipalities in the Brussels metropolitan region, the bilingual region of Belgium, could freely choose either language to be used in administrative purposes. The town government of Sint-Stevens-Woluwe

Sint-Stevens-Woluwe

Sint-Stevens-Woluwe is a town located near Brussels, the capital of Belgium. It is part of Zaventem municipality, in the Flemish Brabant province.-See also:*Woluwe River, the river flowing through the town....

, which lies in present-day Flemish Brabant

Flemish Brabant

Flemish Brabant is a province of Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on the Belgian provinces of Antwerp, Limburg, Liège, Walloon Brabant, Hainaut and East Flanders. Flemish Brabant also completely surrounds the Brussels-Capital Region. Its capital is Leuven...

, was the only one to opt for Dutch in favor of French.

Language censuses

The language law of 1921 was elaborated upon by a further law in 1932. Dutch was made an official language within the central government, the (then) four Flemish provinces, as well as the arondissements of Leuven and Brussels (excepting the Brussels metropolitan area as a whole). The law also stipulated that municipalities on the language border or near Brussels would be required to provide services in both languages when the minority exceeded 30%, and the administrative language of a municipality would be changed if the language minority grew to greater than 50%. This was to be regulated by a language census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

every ten years, although the validity of the results from Flanders were frequently questioned. In 1932, Sint-Stevens-Woluwe, now a part of the Zaventem

Zaventem

Zaventem is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. The municipality comprises the towns of Nossegem, Sint-Stevens-Woluwe, Sterrebeek and Zaventem proper. On January 1, 2006 Zaventem had a total population of 28,651...

municipality, became the first municipality in Belgian history to recede from the bilingual Brussels metro region because the French-speaking minority percentage fell to below 30%. This did not sit well with some French-speakers in Brussels, some of whom formed a group called the "Ligue contre la flamandisation de Bruxelles" (League against the Flemishification of Brussels), which campaigned against what they saw as a form of "Flemish tyranny". Before the introduction of French as an official language of Ganshoren

Ganshoren

Ganshoren is one of the nineteen municipalities located in the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium. On January 1, 2006 the municipality had a total population of 20,970. The total area is 2.46 km² which gives a population density of 8,541 inhabitants per km².-Pronunciation:* French: * Dutch:...

and Sint-Agatha-Berchem

Sint-Agatha-Berchem

Sint-Agatha-Berchem or Berchem-Sainte-Agathe is one of the nineteen municipalities located in the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium.The municipality had a total population of 20,078 on 1 January 2006...

, the group also objected to the bilingual status of Ixelles. The group also strongly defended the "freedom of the head of household", a major factor in the process of Frenchification.

Evolution in the City of Brussels proper

While the Brussels metropolitan area grew quickly, the population of the City of Brussels

City of Brussels

The City of Brussels is the largest municipality of the Brussels-Capital Region, and the official capital of Belgium by law....

proper declined considerably. In 1910, Brussels had 185,000 inhabitants; in 1925 this number fell to 142,000. Reasons for this depopulation were manifold. First, the fetid stench of the disease-laden Senne

Senné

Senné is a village and municipality in the Veľký Krtíš District of the Banská Bystrica Region of southern Slovakia.-External links:*http://www.statistics.sk/mosmis/eng/run.html...

river caused many to leave the city. Second, cholera broke out in 1832 and 1848, which led to the Senne being completely covered over

Covering of the Senne

The covering of the Senne was one of the defining events in the history of Brussels. The Senne/Zenne was historically the main waterway of Brussels, but it became more polluted and less navigable as the city grew. By the second half of the 19th century, it had become a serious health hazard and...

. Third, the rising price of property and rental rates caused many inhabitants to search for affordable living situations elsewhere. Higher taxes on patents, which were up to 30% higher than those in neighboring municipalities, stifled economic development and drove up the cost of city living. These higher patent prices were abandoned in 1860. Finally, the industrialization that occurred in the neighboring areas drew workers out of the city. These social changes helped speed the process of Frenchification in the central city. In 1920, three bordering municipalities, each having a large number of Dutch-speaking inhabitants, were amalgamated into the City of Brussels.

According to the language census of 1846, 61% of Brussels residents spoke Dutch and 39% spoke French. The census of 1866 permitted residents to answer "both languages", although it was unstated whether this meant "knowledge of both languages" or "use of both languages", nor whether or not either was the resident's mother tongue. In any case, 39% answered Dutch, 20% French, and 38% "both languages". In 1900, the percentage of monolingual French-speakers overtook the percentage of monolingual Dutch-speakers, although this was most likely caused by the growing number of bilingual speakers. Between 1880 and 1890, the percentage of bilingual speakers rose from 30% to 50%, and the number of monolingual Dutch-speakers declined from 36% in 1880 to 17% in 1910. Although the term "bilingual" was misused by the government to showcase the large number of French-speakers, it is clear that French gained acceptance in both the public and private lives of Dutch-speaking Brussels residents.

Expansion of the metropolitan area

Beyond the city of Brussels, the municipalities of Ixelles, Saint-Gilles

Saint-Gilles

Saint-Gilles is the name of several places, most of them named after Saint Giles.-Belgium:* Saint-Gilles is the French name for a municipality in the bilingual Brussels-Capital Region...

, Etterbeek

Etterbeek

Etterbeek is one of the nineteen municipalities located in the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium. It neighbours the municipalities of the City of Brussels, Ixelles, Auderghem, Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, Woluwe-Saint-Lambert and Schaerbeek....

, Forest

Forest, Belgium

Forest or Vorst is one of the nineteen municipalities located in the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium.The town is commonly known for its concert hall...

, Watermael-Boitsfort

Watermael-Boitsfort

Watermael-Boitsfort or Watermaal-Bosvoorde is one of the nineteen municipalities located in the Brussels-Capital Region in Belgium....

and Saint-Josse

Saint-Josse

Saint-Josse, or Saint-Josse-sur-Mer, is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.-Geography:Saint-Josse is located 4 miles west of Montreuil-sur-Mer on the D144 road...

saw the most widespread adoption of the French language over the following century. In Ixelles, the proportion of Dutch monolinguals fell from 54% to 3% between 1846 and 1947, while during in the same time the proportion of monolingual Francophones grew from 45% to 60%. Whereas in 1846 Saint-Gilles was still 83% Dutch-speaking, one hundred years later half of its population spoke only French, and 39% were bilingual. Similarly, Etterbeek evolved from a 97% Dutch-speaking village to an urban neighborhood in which half of its inhabitants spoke only French. The same phenomenon applied to Forest and Watermael-Boitsfort, where the went from completely Dutch-speaking to half monolingual French and half bilingual, with monolingual Dutch-speakers at only 6%. In Saint-Josse-ten-Noode

Saint-Josse-ten-Noode

Sint-Joost-ten-Node or Saint-Josse-ten-Noode is one of the nineteen municipalities located in the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium....

, the proportion of monolingual Dutch-speakers equalled that of French-speakers in 1846, but by 1947 only 6% were monolingual Dutch-speakers, and 40% were monolingual French-speakers.

In 1921 the metropolitan area was expanded further. The municipalities of Laken

Laken

Laeken or Laken is a residential suburb in north-west Brussels in Belgium...

, Neder-over-Heembeek

Neder-over-Heembeek

Neder-over-Heembeek is a northern part of the City of Brussels municipality in Belgium. It is a commune which lost its municipality status when it was merged with the City of Brussels....

, and Haren

Haren, Belgium

Haren is an old municipality of Brussels in Belgium, that was merged into the municipality of the City of Brussels in 1921...

were incorporated into the municipality of Brussels, while Sint-Pieters-Woluwe became part of the bilingual agglomeration by law. After the language census of 1947, Evere

Evere

Evere is one of the nineteen municipalities located in the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium. On January 1, 2006 the municipality had a total population of 33,462...

, Ganshoren

Ganshoren

, and Sint-Agatha-Berchem

Sint-Agatha-Berchem

were added to the bilingual agglomeration, although the implementation of this change was postponed until 1954 due to Flemish pressure. This was the last enlargement of the agglomeration, which brought the number of municipalities in Brussels to 19. In the peripheral municipalities of Kraainem

Kraainem

Kraainem is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. The municipality only comprises the town of Kraainem proper. On January 1, 2006 Kraainem had a total population of 13,150...

, Linkebeek

Linkebeek

Linkebeek is a Belgian municipality in Flanders, part of the province of Flemish Brabant, in the bilingual electoral and judicial district of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde, and in the administrative district of Halle-Vilvoorde. The municipality only comprises the town of Linkebeek proper. As of January...

, Drogenbos

Drogenbos

Drogenbos is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant. The municipality only comprises the town of Drogenbos proper. On January 1, 2006 Drogenbos had a total population of 4,876. The total area is 2.49 km² which gives a population density of 1,957 inhabitants per...

, and Wemmel

Wemmel

Wemmel is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant. The municipality only comprises the town of Wemmel proper. On January 1, 2006 Wemmel had a total population of 14,774. The total area is 8.74 km² which gives a population density of 1,690 inhabitants per km².The...

, where a French-speaking minority of more than 30% existed, language facilities were set up, although these municipalities officially remain in the Dutch language area.

**Most spoken language**
(current 19 municipalities)
Year	Dutch	French
1910	49.1%	49.3%
1920	39.2%	60.5%
1930	34.7%	64.7%
1947	25.5%	74.2%

The censuses on the use of languages in the municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region have shown that by 1947 French was becoming the most spoken language. However, in 1947, the percentage of residents declaring themselves bilingual was 45%, the percentage of monolingual Dutch-speakers was 9% and the percentage of monolingual French-speakers was 38%. In practice the bilingual citizens were most of the time bilingual Flemings. They were nevertheless recorded as bilinguals and not as Dutch-speakers.

Establishment of the language border

After both a Flemish boycott of the language census of 1960 and two large Flemish protest marches in Brussels, the language border was solidified in 1962 and the recently taken language census was annulled. Various municipalities shifted from one language area to another, such as Voeren, which became part of Flanders, and Comines-Warneton

Comines-Warneton

Comines-Warneton is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. On January 1, 2006, Comines-Warneton had a total population of 17,562. The total area is 61.09 km² which gives a population density of 287 inhabitants per km². The name "Comines" is believed to have a...

and Mouscron

Mouscron

Mouscron is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. The Mouscron municipality includes the old communes of Dottignies , Luingne, and Herseaux .-Middle Ages:...

which became part of Wallonia. In both Wezembeek-Oppem

Wezembeek-Oppem

Wezembeek-Oppem is a municipality in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant, ten kilometres east of the centre of Brussels. The municipality only comprises the town of Wezembeek-Oppem proper. On January 1, 2006 Wezembeek-Oppem had a total population of 13,504...

and Sint-Genesius-Rode

Sint-Genesius-Rode

Sint-Genesius-Rode is a municipality located in Flanders, one of three regions of Belgium, in the province of Flemish Brabant. The municipality comprises the town of Sint-Genesius-Rode only. On January 1, 2008, the town had a total population of 18,021...

, language facilities were established for French-speakers, who made up just under 30% of the population when the last language census in 1947 was taken. Brussels was fixed at 19 municipalities, thus creating a bilingual enclave in otherwise monolingual Flanders.

Brussels was limited to the current 19 municipalities. Many French-speakers complained that this did not correspond to the social reality, since the language border was based on the results of the 1947 language census and not that of 1960. French-speaking sources claim that in that year, French-speaking minorities had surpassed the 30% threshold in Alsemberg

Alsemberg

Alsemberg is a rural town with about 5,300 inhabitants in the municipality of Beersel, in the province of Flemish Brabant, Belgium, situated south of Brussels....

, Beersel

Beersel

Beersel is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant. The municipality comprises the towns of Alsemberg, Beersel proper, Dworp, Huizingen and Lot. On January 1, 2006 Beersel had a total population of 23,433. The total area is 30.01 km² which gives a population density of 781...

, Sint-Pieters-Leeuw

Sint-Pieters-Leeuw

Sint-Pieters-Leeuw , is a Dutch-speaking municipality of Belgium located in the province of Flemish Brabant .The municipality comprises the towns of Oudenaken, Ruisbroek, Sint-Laureins-Berchem, Sint-Pieters-Leeuw proper and Vlezenbeek. On January 1, 2006 Sint-Pieters-Leeuw had a total population...

, Dilbeek

Dilbeek

Dilbeek is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. The municipality comprises the villages of Dilbeek proper, Groot-Bijgaarden, Itterbeek , Schepdaal , Sint-Martens-Bodegem, and Sint-Ulriks-Kapelle...

, Strombeek-Bever

Strombeek-Bever

Strombeek-Bever is an urbanised town with about 11,500 inhabitants in the municipality of Grimbergen, in the province of Flemish Brabant, Belgium. A suburb on the north side of Brussels, it is separated from Grimbergen proper by the R0 ring road around the city...

, Sterrebeek

Sterrebeek

Sterrebeek is a town in the municipality of Zaventem, and a suburb on the east-northeast side of Brussels.Brussels American School is located in Sterrebeek....

, and Sint-Stevens-Woluwe

Sint-Stevens-Woluwe

, in which case French-language facilities should have been established under previous legislation. A political rift developed because French-speakers considered the language facilities as an essential right, while the Flemish saw the facilities as a temporary, transitional measure to allow the French-speaking minorities time to adapt to the Flemish environment.

The division of the country into language areas had serious consequences for education, and the "freedom of the head of household" was abolished. Thence, Dutch-speaking children were required to be educated in Dutch and French-speaking children in French. This managed to stem the tide of further Frenchification in Brussels. Some of the more radical French-speakers such as the Democratic Front of Francophones

Democratic Front of Francophones

The Francophone Democratic Federalists , is a Francophone political party based in Brussels, Belgium founded on 11 May 1964. Until 1982, the FDF dominated Brussels' municipal politics. It is led by Deputy Olivier Maingain....

were opposed to this change and advocated the restoration of the freedom of education.

Criticism by the FDF

The Democratic Front of Francophones

Democratic Front of Francophones

was founded in 1964 as a reaction to the fixation of the language border. The FDF decried the limitation of Brussels to 19 municipalities. They demanded free choice of language in the educational system, the freedom for the Brussels metropolitan area to grow beyond the language border and into the unilingual Flanders, and economic opportunities for the metropolitan area that would later comprise the Brussels-Capital Region. The Front accepted that governmental agencies in Brussels would be bilingual, but not that every civil servant working in those agencies be bilingual. The party experienced growing popularity and saw electoral success in the elections of the 1960s and 1970s.

The FDF objected to a fixed representation of the language groups in the agencies, considering this to be undemocratic. In the predecessor to the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region, for example, a significant number of seats were reserved for Dutch-speakers. A number of French-speakers circumvented this by claiming to be Dutch speakers, and over a third of the seats reserved for Dutch-speakers were taken by these so called "false Flemish".

With the fusion of Belgian municipalities in 1976, some primarily French-speaking municipalities joined larger municipalities with Flemish majorities, thereby reducing the number of French-speaking municipalities. Zellik

Zellik

Zellik is an urbanised town with over 8,000 inhabitants in the municipality of Asse, in the province of Flemish Brabant, Belgium. As a suburb on the northwest edge of Brussels, it is separated from the rest of the agglomeration by the R0 ring road around the city...

joined Asse

Asse

Asse is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant. The municipality comprises the towns of Asse proper, Bekkerzeel, Kobbegem, Mollem, Relegem and Zellik. On January 1, 2006 Asse had a total population of 29,191...

, Sint-Stevens-Woluwe

Sint-Stevens-Woluwe

and Sterrebeek

Sterrebeek

Sterrebeek is a town in the municipality of Zaventem, and a suburb on the east-northeast side of Brussels.Brussels American School is located in Sterrebeek....

joined Zaventem

Zaventem

, and Strombeek-Bever

Strombeek-Bever

joined Grimbergen

Grimbergen

Grimbergen is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. The municipality comprises the towns of Beigem, Grimbergen, Humbeek and Strombeek-Bever. On January 1, 2006 Grimbergen had a total population of 33,965. The total area is...

. In addition, several larger municipalities with heavily Flemish population were created, such as Sint-Pieters-Leeuw

Sint-Pieters-Leeuw

, Dilbeek

Dilbeek

, Beersel

Beersel

and Tervuren

Tervuren

Tervuren is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. The municipality comprises the villages of Duisburg, Tervuren, Vossem and Moorsel. On January 1, 2006, Tervuren had a total population of 20,636...

. The FDF saw this as a motive for the fusion of the municipalities, not a result of it.

Reassessment of Dutch

Amidst tension throughout the country, the sociolinguistic neglect of Dutch began to fade. The recognition of Dutch as the sole language of Flanders, the expansion of a well-functioning Flemish educational system, the development of the Flemish economy, and the popularization of Standard Dutch

Dutch Language Union

The Dutch Language Union is an international institution for discussing issues regarding the Dutch language. It was founded on 9 September 1980 by the Netherlands and Belgium...

were responsible for its revitalization. The Flemish Community

Flemish Community

The term Flemish Community has two distinct, though related, meanings:...

saw that if it wanted Dutch to have a prominent place in Brussels, it would need to make investing in Dutch language education its primary concern.

Integration of Dutch into the educational system

In 1971, the FDF managed to secure the right for individuals to again be able to choose the language of their education, and the FDF expected that Frenchification would continue as before. Initially, the effect was a reduction in the number of students enrolled in Flemish schools, falling from 6000 students in elementary school

Elementary school

and 16,000 in high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

in 1966-1967 to 5000 and 12,000 nine years later. But by that point, the Flemish Centre of Education, created in 1967, had begun its campaign to promote education in Dutch, with its initial target being Dutch speaking families. In 1976, this task was taken up by the precursor to today's Flemish Community Commission

Flemish Community Commission

The Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie is the local representative of the Flemish authorities in the Brussels-Capital Region, one of the three regions of Belgium...

(VGC), which made substantial investments to improve the quality of Dutch language schools. Starting in the 1978-1979 school year, the strategy began to bear fruit, and the number of children enrolled in Flemish daycares began to increase. This translated to an increase in the enrollment in primary schools a few years later. As a result, all young Dutch speaking children born after the mid 1970s have only gone to Flemish schools. The Frenchification of Dutch speakers became more and more rare with time. Nonetheless, foreign immigration continued to tilt the balance in favor of French.

In the 1980s, the VGC started to concentrate its efforts on bilingual families, though the improvement of the Flemish schools had an unexpected effect; monolingual French speaking families also began to send their children to Flemish schools. This effect increased bit by bit, as bilingualism began to be thought of as normal. Even today, the Flemish educational system continues to attract those with a first language other than Dutch; in 2005, 20% of students go to Dutch speaking high schools, and for daycares, that figure reaches 23%. In fact, it has got to the point where those with Dutch as a first language are now a minority in the Flemish schools, and as a result, measures have needed to be taken to sustain the quality of education.

Socioeconomic development of Flanders

Wallonia's economic decline and the use of French by recent immigrants did little to help the prestige of French relative to Dutch. After World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the Flemish economy underwent significant growth. Flanders developed a prosperous middle class, and the prestige of Dutch saw an increase.

Those born into a monolingual Dutch family in Brussels had always had a lower level of education than the average for Brussels. By contrast, 30% of the Flemings who had moved to Brussels from elsewhere had a university degree or other post-secondary education, and were highly qualified. For example, since 1970 in Belgium as a whole, there have been more students enrolled in Dutch language universities than French ones. To be called a Dutch speaker no longer evokes images of lower class laborers, as it long had. Bilingualism is increasingly a prerequisite for well-paying jobs, and what prestige the Dutch language currently has in Brussels is chiefly for economic reasons. It should be noted that the economic importance of Dutch in Brussels has little to do with the proportion of Brussels that is Dutch speaking. Rather, it is primarily relations between businesses in Brussels and Flemish businesses, or more generally, with Dutch speaking businesses as a whole that ensure the economic importance of Dutch in Brussels.

Foreign immigration

In 1958, Brussels became the seat of the European Economic Community

European Economic Community

The European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) The European Economic Community (EEC) (also known as the Common Market in the English-speaking world, renamed the European Community (EC) in 1993The information in this article primarily covers the EEC's time as an independent...

, which later became the EU

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

, while the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was established in 1967 with its headquarters in Evere

Evere

Evere is one of the nineteen municipalities located in the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium. On January 1, 2006 the municipality had a total population of 33,462...

. This, combined with economic immigration from southern Europe

Southern Europe

The term Southern Europe, at its most general definition, is used to mean "all countries in the south of Europe". However, the concept, at different times, has had different meanings, providing additional political, linguistic and cultural context to the definition in addition to the typical...

and later from Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

, Morocco

Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

(a former French colony

Treaty of Fez

By the Treaty of Fez , signed March 30, 1912, Sultan Abdelhafid gave up the sovereignty of Morocco to the French, making the country a protectorate, resolving the Agadir Crisis of July 1, 1911....

), and the Congo

Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...

(a former Belgian colony

Belgian Congo

The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...

), changed the makeup of the population of Brussels. Between 1961 and 2006, the number of non-Belgian inhabitants grew from 7% to 56%. The newcomers adopted and spoke French in great numbers, mainly due to the French-speaking African origins of many that came.

In general, foreign immigration further reduced the percentage of Dutch speakers and led to further Frenchification of the city. This stood in contrast to the first half of the 20th century, however, when the change was Frenchifcation of Brussels's existing Flemish inhabitants.

Frenchification of immigrants

Out of all immigrant groups, Moroccan

Morocco

immigrants used French the most, which gained increasing importance alongside Berber

Berber languages

The Berber languages are a family of languages indigenous to North Africa, spoken from Siwa Oasis in Egypt to Morocco , and south to the countries of the Sahara Desert...

and Moroccan Arabic

Moroccan Arabic

Moroccan Arabic is the variety of Arabic spoken in the Arabic-speaking areas of Morocco. For official communications, the government and other public bodies use Modern Standard Arabic, as is the case in most Arabic-speaking countries. A mixture of French and Moroccan Arabic is used in business...

in their already bilingual community. The Turks held on to their own language

Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...

, although French also gained importance in their community. Dutch struggled to take hold in these two migrant groups. Children from these communities attended (and often continue to attend) French-language education, and used French in their circles of friends and at home. This evolution is also seen with Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Greek migrants, who easily adopted French due to its similarity to other Romance languages

Romance languages

The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...

that many had already spoken. The northern Europeans, who are not nearly as numerous, came mainly after the 1980s, make more use of their own languages, such as English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

and German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

. When these northern Europeans happened to marry French speakers, the language spoken at home often became French. In these groups, the long-term effects and trends of language shift are difficult to determine.

Brussels' multicultural and multiethnic character has widened the language situation beyond merely considering Dutch and French. Dutch is patently less well represented than French in the allophone

Allophone (disambiguation)

In phonetics an allophone is one of different ways that a single phoneme may be pronounced.Allophone may also refer to:* Allophone , a person whose native language is neither French nor English* 2002 album by the Addison Groove Project...

population. Out of 74 selected Dutch-speakers, only two were found to be allophone, approximately nine times fewer than in the French-speaking population. Out of the inhabitants of Brussels-Capital region with foreign nationality, in 2000 3% spoke exclusively Dutch at home, compared to 9% who spoke exclusively French. In addition, 16% spoke another language in addition to French at home.

Internationalization and rise of English

As the European Union

European Union

grew, and more foreign diplomats and other international personnel transferred to Brussels, the French speakers worried that English would become the new lingua franca of the city. This anglicization differed from the previous Frenchification in that there was no repression or obligation associated with it. Dutch, which served only as an official language spoken by some at home, was not expected to suffer from the rise in English usage. By contrast, the French-speaking nature of Brussels was seen as a bulwark against the deteriorating position of French as used in the European Union. Now, (in 2008), more Brussels inhabitants claim to speak fluent English than fluent Dutch, 35% to 28%, respectively.

In 2000, both stood at 33%. Thus, the knowledge of Dutch has declined, although knowledge of Dutch is in higher demand in the job market than knowledge of English. Dutch has not been repressed by the influx of English, as only 3% of the English speakers in Brussels are native speakers. English as a worldwide lingua franca fulfills an increasingly important role in the economic and cultural sphere, and in this sense poses more of a threat to the position of French than Dutch. Now, most of those who speak Dutch, even as a second language, are usually trilingual. Foreign immigration coincided with the flight of city dwellers to the suburbs around Brussels, leading to a permanent, growing French-speaking presence in the Brussels-Capital Region itself.

Creation of the Brussels Capital Region

The 19 municipalities of Brussels are the only officially bilingual part of Belgium. The creation of a bilingual, full-fledged Brussels region, with its own competencies and jurisdiction, had long been hampered by different visions of Belgian federalism.
Initially, Flemish political parties demanded Flanders be given jurisdiction

Jurisdiction

Jurisdiction is the practical authority granted to a formally constituted legal body or to a political leader to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters and, by implication, to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility...

over cultural matters, concerned with the dominance of the French language in the federal government. Likewise, as Wallonia was in economic decline, Francophone political parties were concerned with getting economic autonomy for the French speaking regions to address the situation. The Flemish also feared being in the minority, faced with two other French speaking regions. They viewed the creation of a separate Brussels region as definitively cutting Brussels off from Flanders, an admission of the loss of Brussels to Frenchification. Essentially, the Flemish had a vision of Belgium with two parts: a Dutch speaking part and a French speaking part, whereas Francophones had a vision with three parts: Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia.

In 1989, the compromise between these conceptions gave rise to the official creation of the Brussels-Capital Region, and influenced the jurisdictions it was given. It was given its own government, including its own parliament, with 11 seats of the 75 total reserved for Dutch speakers. This was increased in 2004 to 17 of 89 seats, roughly a fifth of the total. As a concession to the Flemish, of the four ministers of the Brussels-Capital region, half must be Flemish, and of the three more junior Secretaries of State, at least one must be Flemish. The Minister-President is in practice always a francophone, so the cabinet

Cabinet (government)

A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...

of the Region has 5 French-speaking and 3 Dutch-speaking members.

The region was placed on equal footing with the Flemish Region and the Walloon Region. Nonetheless, Brussels does not have its own community; rather the Flemish Community and the French Community both have jurisdiction in Brussels. The Flemish Community Commission

Flemish Community Commission

The Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie is the local representative of the Flemish authorities in the Brussels-Capital Region, one of the three regions of Belgium...

(VGC) and the French Community Commission

French Community Commission

The Commission communautaire française is the local representative of the French-speaking authorities in the Brussels-Capital Region, one of the three regions of Belgium....

(COCOF) were to act on their respective Communities' behalf in Brussels. Brussels divides its funding for the Communities between them, with 20% going to the VGC, and 80% to the COCOF.

The periphery of Brussels

In Drogenbos

Drogenbos

, Kraainem

Kraainem

, Linkebeek

Linkebeek

, Sint-Genesius-Rode

Sint-Genesius-Rode

, Wemmel

Wemmel

and Wezembeek-Oppem

Wezembeek-Oppem

, the six Municipalities with language facilities in the suburbs around Brussels, the proportion of the population that was French-speaking also grew in the second half of the 20th century, and they now constitute a majority. In the administrative arrondissement of Halle-Vilvoorde, which constitutes those six municipalities and 29 other Flemish municipalities, around 25% of families speak French at home. The Flemish government saw this as a worrying trend, and enacted policies designed to keep the periphery of Brussels Dutch-speaking. One effect of this policy was a very literal interpretation of the linguistic facility laws, including the Peeters directive

Peeters directive

The Peeters directive , officially Circular BA 97/22 of 16 December 1997 concerning the use of languages in municipal councils of the Dutch language area, is a circulaire of the Flemish government regulating the use of languages in municipal councils in the Flemish Region , where the sole official...

. This circulaire
Circulaire
In France, Italy, Belgium, and some other civil law countries, a circulaire , circolare or omzendbrief consists of a text intended for the members of a service, of an enterprise, or of an administration....

stipulates, among other things, that each and every time French-speakers deal with the government, they must explicitly ask for their documents to be in French.

Current situation

In Brussels's northwestern municipalities, the proportion of Dutch speakers is high compared to other municipalities in Brussels. It is in these same municipalities that the proportion of non-native Dutch speakers who speak Dutch is highest, generally in excess of 20%. At the two extremes are Ganshoren

Ganshoren

, where 25% of non-native speakers speak Dutch, and Saint-Gilles

Saint-Gilles, Belgium

Saint-Gilles or Sint-Gillis is one of the nineteen municipalities located in the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium.Saint-Gilles has a multicultural identity stemming from its diverse population...

, where Dutch as a language spoken at home has practically disappeared.

The younger a generation is, the poorer its knowledge of Dutch tends to be. The demographic of those who grew up speaking only Dutch at home, and to a lesser extent those who grew up bilingual, is significantly older than the Brussels average. Between 2000 and 2006, the proportion of monolingual Dutch families shrank from 9.5% to 7.0%, whereas bilingual families shrank from 9.9% to 8.6%. On the other hand, in the same period the number of non-native Dutch speakers with a good to excellent knowledge of Dutch saw an increase. Half of those in Brussels with a good knowledge of Dutch learned the language outside of their family, and this figure is expected to increase. In 2001, 70% of the city had a knowledge of Dutch that was "at least passable". In 2006, 28% of those living in Brussels had a good to excellent knowledge of Dutch, while 96% had a good to excellent knowledge of French, and 35% of English. French was found to be spoken at home in 77% of households in Brussels, Dutch in 16% of households, and neither official language was spoken in 16% of households. French is thus by far the best known language in Brussels, and remains the lingua franca

Lingua franca

of the city.

Of businesses based in Brussels, 50% use French for internal business, while 32% use French and Dutch, the others using a variety of other languages. More than a third of job openings require bilingualism, and a fifth of job openings require knowledge of English. On account of this, it is argued that an increase in knowledge of Dutch in Brussels and Wallonia would significantly improve the prospects of job seekers in those regions. Of advertising campaigns in Brussels, 42% are bilingual French and Dutch, while 33% are in French only, 10% in French and English and 7% in English, French and Dutch. During the day, the percentage of Dutch speakers in Brussels increases significantly, with 230,000 commuters

Commuting

Commuting is regular travel between one's place of residence and place of work or full time study. It sometimes refers to any regular or often repeated traveling between locations when not work related.- History :...

coming from the Flemish Region, significantly more than the 130,000 coming from the Walloon Region. Many of those coming from the Flemish Region, however, especially from very close to Brussels, are French speakers.

National political concerns

Francophones living in Flanders want Flanders to ratify the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities

Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities

The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities was signed on February 1995 by 22 member States of the Council of Europe ....

, which has been signed by almost every country in Europe, though in Belgium, it has been signed but not ratified (also the case in a handful of others). The Framework would allow francophones to claim the right to use their own language when dealing with the authorities, bilingual street names, schooling in French, etc. The Framework, however, does not specify what a "National Minority" is, and the Flemish do not see the francophones in Flanders as being one. Flanders is not inclined to approve the Framework, in spite of frequent appeals by the Council of Europe

Council of Europe

The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...

to do so.

In Flemish circles, there is an ever continuing worry that the status of Dutch in Brussels will continue to deteriorate, and that the surrounding region will undergo even more Frenchification. On the political level, the proposed division of the bilingual Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde

Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde

Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde is a Belgian electoral and judicial arrondissement in the center of the country, encompassing:* the officially bilingual Brussels-Capital Region, which coincides...

(BHV) electoral and judicial district has caused much linguistic strife. The district is composed of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region in addition to the 35 municipalities of the Flemish administrative arrondissement of Halle-Vilvoorde. For elections to the Belgian Senate

Belgian Senate

The Belgian Senate is one of the two chambers of the bicameral Federal Parliament of Belgium, the other being the Chamber of Representatives. It is considered to be the "upper house" of the Federal Parliament.-History and future:...

and to the European Parliament

European Parliament

The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...

, which are organized by linguistic region, residents from anywhere in the arrondissement can vote for French-speaking parties in Wallonia and Brussels. For elections to the Belgian Chamber of Representatives, which is usually done by province

Provinces of Belgium

Belgium is divided into three regions, two of them are subdivided into five provinces each.The division into provinces is fixed by Article 5 of the Belgian Constitution...

, voters from Halle-Vilvoorde can vote for parties in Brussels, and vice-versa. If BHV, is divided, the francophones living in Halle-Vilvoorde would no longer be able to vote for candidates in Brussels, and they would lose the right to judicial proceedings in French. If a division were to take place, francophone political parties would demand that the Brussels-Capital Region be expanded, a proposal that is unacceptable to Flemish parties. This issue was one of the chief reasons for the 200 day impasse in Belgian government formation in 2007

2007–2008 Belgian government formation

The 2007–2008 Belgian government formation followed the general election of 10 June 2007, and consisted of a period of negotiation in which the Flemish parties Flemish Liberal Democratic , Christian Democratic and Flemish and New Flemish Alliance , and the French-speaking parties Reformist...

, and it remains a hotly contested issue between the linguistic Communities.

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