Voeren - Linguistic and Political Issues

Linguistic and Political Issues

Most native people in Voeren speak Limburgish, a regional language related to Dutch and German. Voeren is economically dependent on the provinces of Liège and, increasingly, Dutch Limburg and the majority of its inhabitants are Dutch speaking, a significant minority even being Dutch citizens.

Until the beginning of the 20th century people generally did not care which administration Voeren came under. People spoke the local dialect in daily life. The government institutions used French, while church and school used German or Dutch.

But some influential inhabitants such as the local priest, Hendrik Veltmans, argued that Voeren was culturally Flemish and actively tried to bring Voeren into Flanders.

In 1932, with the introduction of new language laws, the linguistic alignment of Voeren was determined (as for all other towns along the language border in Belgium) on the basis of the results of the census of 1930. According to this census 81.2% of the population of the six villages that now make up Voeren spoke Dutch and 18.8% declared that they spoke French. Administrative changes were made as a result. The results of the next census, held in 1947, were only made public in 1954 and gave a totally different outcome, with only 42.9% stating that they spoke Dutch and 57.1% French. According to the 1932 legislation this would have meant that the linguistic status of the villages would have changed from Dutch speaking with a French minority to French speaking with a Dutch speaking minority. At that time however, due to the rising political controversy between the Dutch- and French-speaking communities in Belgium, a parliamentary committee (the so called centrum Harmel, named after Pierre Harmel) was established to fix, amongst other things, the language boundary once and for all. This committee proposed, notwithstanding the 1947 results (strongly disputed by the Flemish), that the six villages were Dutch speaking with special regulations for the French speaking minority to be decided after discussion with the town councils.

In 1962 the work of the committee resulted in a law proposed by the Minister of the Interior, Gilson, whereby Voeren would be officially Dutch speaking with language facilities for the French speaking community, but would remain part of the French speaking province of Liège. After fierce debate in parliament this proposal was approved but subject to the amendment that Voeren would become part of the Dutch speaking province of Limburg. This switch from Liège to Limburg was received badly by many local people because of the region's dependence on Liège. Francophones in particular campaigned for the region to be returned to the province of Liège.

On January 1, 1977, the six small municipalities were merged into the present-day Voeren municipality. The Francophone and Flemish movements could organize themselves politically more effectively as there was now one instead of six municipal councils. This resulted in political and linguistic strife between the Francophone Retour à Liège (Return to Liège) party and the Flemish Voerbelangen (Voeren's Best Interests) party. The Retour à Liège faction won a majority in the new council. There were also action committees on both sides and gangs who daubed place-name signs and took part in violent demonstrations. The language struggle in Voeren became a national issue, and people from outside the region became involved.

The linguistic struggle came to a head when José Happart was put forward as mayor in 1983. For one thing, he was alleged to have supported the Francophone gangs in Voeren. However the main problem was the constitutional question of whether someone who could not speak Dutch could become mayor of a Flemish municipality. Happart was dismissed as mayor for refusing to take a Dutch language test, but appealed against his dismissal, and the question dragged on for years, ultimately causing the Belgian government to fall on October 19, 1987.

In 1988 concessions to the Francophone inhabitants were made. The powers of the provincial government of Limburg were curtailed and more autonomy was given to the municipality. The government of Wallonia was allowed to build facilities for Francophones in Voeren.

In the 1994 municipal elections the Dutch speaking party (Voerbelangen) won a seat more than in earlier elections but was still a minority on the council. In 1995 Mayor Happart was forced to leave office. Several national courts of arbitration declared some of the 1988 concessions unconstitutional (e.g. the Walloon building rights).

EU nationals were given suffrage at the municipal level in 1999. This factor was decisive in the 2000 municipal elections, because of the significant number of Dutch citizens living in Voeren (about 20% of the total population): Voerbelangen won a majority of 53% of the votes and 8 out of 15 local council seats. However, the new majority faced budgetary difficulties, since large debts had been incurred by the previous administration. The council had to sell several items of municipal property, such as forests and goods to stabilise its finances. As from 2003–2004 the council is viable again, and new projects are being started to fulfill the promises made during the elections. In the 2006 municipal elections Voerbelangen won again, gaining 61% of the votes and 9 out of 15 council seats. For the first time, Voerbelangen also won the majority of the seats in the council of the OCMW (Public Centre for Social Welfare), the social affairs department of the municipality, for which nationals of other EU countries may not vote. Though the violence of the 1970s and 1980s has subsided, some activists still daub graffiti on place-name signs. In December 2006, the Flemish Government decided to abolish all official French translations in Flemish municipalities and villages, including municipalities with language facilities. Thus the French names of the Voeren municipality and villages will no longer be used on place-name signs, traffic signs and by municipality and other governments in official documents.