![]() Personality principle: All citizens have the freedom to address the authorities in whichever Belgian language they choose, regardless of their region of residence.This implied a choice: should Belgium become a bilingual country or a country with two language regions? This was expressed in two alternatives: This led to a proposal to split the administration in Belgium to preserve the French-speaking nature of Wallonia and to avoid the possibility that French-speaking civil servants there might have to pass a Dutch language examination. Some segments of French-speaking Wallonia were concerned that current practices could result in Belgium becoming a bilingual country, with French and Dutch being recognised as official languages everywhere. ![]() Nevertheless, under pressure from the general population, the law was passed, largely due to the extension of suffrage to every male citizen aged 25 and above which increased the number of Flemish voters, and the introduction of plural voting in 1893 which allowed some eligible voters to cast more than one vote.ġ921: A bilingual nation or languages linked to a region ĭisagreement over the country's language policy continued. The reverse was not the case: Dutch speakers were obliged to learn French. Dutch and French were now to be regarded as co-equal official languages but native French speakers in parliament, unwilling to learn or use Dutch, were either unable or unwilling to read the Dutch texts they were supposed to vote on. ![]() In 1898, the Law on Equality was introduced. The third law on the use of languages was voted on in order to introduce bilingual education. Until 1883, education in secondary schools had been entirely in French. Correspondence with municipalities or persons would be in Dutch unless a person expressed a wish to be engaged in French, but in reality the law was hardly applied in daily life: Flemish citizens were still obliged to communicate with the administration in French, because most civil servants were monoglots who either spoke only French or refused to use the Dutch language.ġ883: Third law on the use of languages Announcements to the public by government officials had to be made either in Dutch or in both languages. The second law on the use of languages in 1878 regulated the use of language in the administrations of Flanders and Brussels. 1878: Second law on the use of languages This and other cases provoked the discussions about the use of languages, and the first law on the use of languages, supported by Edward Coremans, regulated the use of languages in the courts in Flanders.ĭutch became the major language in Flanders, but oral testimony and penal action were still permitted in French. He refused to pay a fine of 50 francs for not wanting to declare the birth of his son to the municipal administration of Molenbeek in French, only to be convicted after an appeal in Cassation. The first law on the use of languages was voted on in 1873, perhaps influenced by growing public dissent occasioned by cases such as the 1872 case of Jozef Schoep. ![]() The Flemish Movement started to advocate language legislation that would recognise Dutch as an official language.ġ873: First law on the use of languages The pair were sentenced to death for the murder of a widow without having understood one single word of their trial, and were then found to be innocent after they were executed. There was a similar sense of alienation in other areas such as justice, as the trial and conviction of two Flemish labourers, Jan Coucke and Pieter Goethals, in 1860 demonstrated. As universal education developed in Belgium, the French language was initially the sole medium of instruction, alienating the northern half of the country. This bias disadvantaged the largely Flemish North and, to a lesser degree, the Walloons of the South and the mainly German- or Luxembourgish-speaking environs of Arlon. While the Belgian Constitution guaranteed "freedom of language", in practice the authorities, including government institutions such as the courts, were dominated by the French-speaking upper classes, and operated in French. A conflict arose between the citizenry of the Flemish provinces who wished to engage with the authorities in Dutch, and the largely francophone aristocracy of the southern provinces which became modern-day Belgium. This article outlines the legislative chronology concerning the use of official languages in Belgium.ġ830: Freedom of languages and linguistic correction Ī factor in the Belgian Revolution of the 1830s was the rising dominance of the Dutch language in the southern provinces of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.
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