Voeren
Encyclopedia
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...
municipality
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...
located in the Belgian
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...
province 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...
. Bordering the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
to the north and the Walloon province of Liège
Liège (province)
Liège is the easternmost province of Belgium and belongs to the Walloon Region. It is an area of French and German ethnicity. It borders on the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and in Belgium the provinces of Luxembourg, Namur, Walloon Brabant , and those of Flemish Brabant and Limburg . Its...
to the south, it is geographically detached from the rest of Flanders. Voeren's name is derived from that of a small right-bank tributary of the Meuse
Meuse River
The Maas or Meuse is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea...
, the Voer
Voer
The Voer is a small river in Belgium and the Netherlands. It is a right tributary to the river Meuse. The source of the Voer is near the village Sint-Pieters-Voeren in the Belgian province Limburg. It crosses the Dutch border between 's-Gravenvoeren and Mesch, and flows into the river Meuse in...
, which flows through the municipality.
The current municipality of Voeren was established by the municipal reform of 1977. On 1 January 2008, Voeren had a total population of 4,207. Its total area is 50.63 km², giving a population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
of 83 people per km². About 25% of the population is made up of foreign nationals, most of whom have Dutch
Dutch people
The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
nationality.
Villages
The municipality consists of the six villages of 's-Gravenvoeren (Fourons-le-Comte), Sint-Pieters-Voeren (Fourons-Saint-Pierre), Sint-Martens-Voeren (Fourons-Saint-Martin), Moelingen (Mouland), Teuven and Remersdaal (Rémersdael). 's-Gravenvoeren (Fourons-le-Comte) is the most important and most populous town of the municipality.History
Since the 11th century, two-thirds of the territory of the present municipality of Voeren was in the county of DalhemDalhem
Dalhem is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Liège. On January 1, 2006 Dalhem had a total population of 6,486. The total area is 36.06 km² which gives a population density of 180 inhabitants per km²....
, which was a possession of the Dukes of Brabant, and the remaining one-third in the Duchy of Limburg
Duchy of Limburg
The Duchy of Limburg, situated in the Low Countries between the river Meuse and the city of Aachen, was a state of the Holy Roman Empire. Its territory is now divided between the Belgian provinces of Liège and Limburg , the Dutch province of Limburg , and a small part of North Rhine-Westphalia in...
, which also belonged to Brabant after 1288. As such, it successively became part 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...
, the Habsburg Netherlands
Habsburg Netherlands
The Habsburg Netherlands was a geo-political entity covering the whole of the Low Countries from 1482 to 1556/1581 and solely the Southern Netherlands from 1581 to 1794...
, and after the Dutch Revolt
Dutch Revolt
The Dutch Revolt or the Revolt of the Netherlands This article adopts 1568 as the starting date of the war, as this was the year of the first battles between armies. However, since there is a long period of Protestant vs...
, part of the Spanish, later Austrian controlled Southern Netherlands
Southern Netherlands
Southern Netherlands were a part of the Low Countries controlled by Spain , Austria and annexed by France...
. After the French
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...
occupation (1794–1815) it became part of the province of Liège
Liège (province)
Liège is the easternmost province of Belgium and belongs to the Walloon Region. It is an area of French and German ethnicity. It borders on the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and in Belgium the provinces of Luxembourg, Namur, Walloon Brabant , and those of Flemish Brabant and Limburg . Its...
until 1963 when it was transferred to the province 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...
, and thus became part of 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...
.
Linguistic and political issues
Most native people in Voeren speak Limburgish, a regional language related to DutchDutch 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...
. 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
Language legislation in Belgium
-1830: freedom of languages and linguistic coercion:One of the causes of the Belgian Revolution of the 1830s was the growing ascendancy of the Dutch language in the administration of the Southern provinces of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
, 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
Pierre Harmel
Pierre Charles José Marie Harmel, from 1991 Count Harmel was a Belgian lawyer, Christian Democratic politician and diplomat...
) 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/Flemish 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).
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...
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 Center 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.
Results of the linguistic censuses of 1930 and 1947 per village
Precise figures on the ethnic composition of Belgium are impossible to obtain, for the language question is so controversial that the Belgian census has not included data on linguistic composition of communes since 1947.| 1930 | 1947 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dutch speaking | French speaking | Dutch speaking | French speaking | |||||
| Moelingen | 469 | 72.8% | 177 | 27.2% | 182 | 43.7% | 487 | 56.3% |
| 's Gravenvoeren | 922 | 75.0% | 307 | 25.0% | 521 | 43.7% | 672 | 56.3% |
| Sint-Martens-Voeren | 805 | 90.1% | 88 | 9.9% | 480 | 58.0% | 348 | 42.0% |
| Sint-Pieters-Voeren | 249 | 86.8% | 38 | 13.2% | 163 | 49.8% | 164 | 50.2% |
| Teuven | 538 | 90.9% | 54 | 9.1% | 283 | 46.6% | 324 | 53.4% |
| Remersdaal | 316 | 75.6% | 102 | 24.4% | 92 | 23.8% | 294 | 76.2% |
| Total | 3,299 | 81.2% | 766 | 18.8% | 1,721 | 42.9% | 2,289 | 57.1% |
External links
- Official website - DutchDutch languageDutch 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...
and FrenchFrench languageFrench 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...