The new mayor of Dilbeek has decided to clamp down on shop owners who communicate in French.
Businesses in the Flemish town recently received a letter from the municipality reminding them that Dutch should be used “throughout the territory”.
However, according to the town’s Flemish nationalist mayor Stijn Quaghebeur (N-VA), the message has failed to get through.
Frustrated with shopkeepers continuing to use French in their everyday communication, Quaghebeur decided to take things into his own hands by personally delivering letters to businesses in a bid to nudge them into changing their behaviour.
Quaghebeur told Het Laatste Nieuws: “A letter is just a letter and can easily be dismissed or ignored. From now on, I will personally deliver this letter to entrepreneurs who communicate and advertise in other languages.
“With this letter and a personal meeting, I want to make it clear to them that Dilbeek is a Flemish municipality and that this must be respected,”
“It's clear that the Dutch-speaking character of the municipality is under threat. However, we cannot stand by and let this happen. We must all remain consistent in using Dutch as the language of communication.”
Dilbeek Mayor Stijn Quaghebeur. Credit: Belga Video
Language use in Belgium is a very sensitive topic, and there are a number of recent examples of Flemish politicians resisting the use of French in Dutch-speaking areas.
In July, the mayor of nearby Halle condemned the use of French on real estate signs after a number of ‘for sale’ signs appeared in French around the city.
Halle mayor Eva Demesmaeker (N-VA) said she received complaints from "worried" residents on the language issue. She stressed that while posting signs in French is not prohibited, she wished to “exert pressure to promote Dutch”.
Dutch still dominant, but waning
Dilbeek is part of the so-called Vlaamse Rand – the name for the group of 19 Flemish municipalities located around the region's border with Brussels.
The municipalities in the Vlaamse Rand are becoming increasingly multilingual.
According to the most recent Language Barometer report by VUB, the number of languages spoken in these communes, including multicultural Vilvoorde and Tervuren, has increased to 104, up from 87 in 2019 and 75 in 2014.
Despite these trends, Dutch remains firmly entrenched in the daily lives of Vlaamse Rant residents. It remains the most commonly used language in formal contexts such as municipal administration and in the workplace.
However, the proportion of Rand people whose home language is exclusively Dutch has fallen to 37.7%, compared to 45% five years ago.
The proportion of French speakers also continues to increase. More than half of the inhabitants who know French well have acquired the language at home (54% compared to 46% in 2019).
