BRUSSELS
HISTORY |
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A small castle was built around 979 C.E. near the Senne.
The small town became in the 12th century an important stop on the
commercial road from Bruges to Cologne.
The Heysel Stadium disaster took place in Brussels on May 29, 1985. |
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Brussels's linguistic history
The Brussels Capital Region is currently home for both French- and Dutch-speakers.
Dutch, or more precisely its "linguistic predecessors", was the language of
the city from its foundation. In those first 6 centuries, French was only
used in the relations with the then "Romance-speaking" (linguistic
predecessors of French) areas around Nivelles. During the Austrian period, 'Dutch'
remained the popular language in Brussels, and French was for several
centuries only spoken by the haute-bourgeoisie and the nobility. It started
becoming only a somewhat popular language under the French regime, and
especially after 1830, by the immigration of many French (revolutionaries
and others) and many Walloons, attracted by the new Belgian authorities. As
in 1830, only the haute-bourgeoisie and the nobility (1% of the population)
had voting rights, these groups wanted to fashion the new state along their
personal preferences. As a result, they had to attract many French-speaking
Walloons to staff the public services.
The area, which is geographically situated in the south of Flanders, was
still mostly Dutch-speaking until the middle of the 20th century. During the
19th and 20th century, more and more French-speaking civil servants coming
from Wallonia settled in Brussels and persistent social, administrative,
cultural and political pressure made many Flemings switch their vernacular
to French.
The Brussels-Capital region nowadays is officially French-Dutch bilingual
and some municipalities in Flanders around Brussels have special linguistic
facilities to protect the right of the French-speaking minorities.
On 4 September 1998 the Council of Europe published a resolution entitled "Situation
of the French-speaking population living in the Brussels periphery" which
focussed on a linguistic conflict affecting six communes in Flanders, and
made recommendations to both the Flemish government and the French-speaking
inhabitants.
The International Labour Organisation, a UN agency, reported the results of
an experiment, involving two testers applying for jobs in Belgium, where the
Moroccan job applicant was discriminated against in favour of the Belgian.
On the one hand, many Flemings complain about a strong pressure from French-speakers
against the bilingual status inside the Brussels-Capital region. Belgian
judiciary has never engaged in any official investigation; all these
complaints are still pending. In the early 90's, an official declaration
from the regional government explicitly acknowledged that social housing was
de facto reserved entirely for those applying in French. As late as 2003,
Rudy Demotte, the federal minister of Public Health and a French-speaking
socialist, has publicly acknowledged that urgent medical services
discriminated against Dutch speakers, in the sense that it was often
difficult for Dutch speakers to use their own language.
On the other hand, there are reports and claims of discriminations against
French-speakers in the outskirts of Brussels regarding access to health care,
using their own language, and social housing. |
