'BELGIE Barst!" says the graffiti on a bridge near the train station, or "Belgium Bursts!" the cry of nationalists who want an independent Flanders. But in Liedekerke they also want to keep the rich French-speakers from Brussels – only 13 miles away and 15 minutes by train – from buying up the pretty landscape and changing the nature of the town.
Liedekerke has only 12,000 inhabitants, but its elected council has caused a stir by insisting on the 'Flemish nature' of the town. Not only must all town business and schooling take place in Flemish, which is the case throughout Flanders, but child
ren who cannot speak the language can be prohibited from holiday outings, such as hikes and swimming classes.
Marc Mertens, 53, is the full-time secretary of the town, a professional manager who works under the elected but part-time town council. Sitting in a café near the old church – Liedekerke is thought to mean "church on the little hill" – he describes how his grandfather fought in the First World War under officers who gave commands only in French. "Then they would say in French: 'For the Flemish, the same!'" The phrase still rankles, and Mertens' grandfather, a bilingual teacher, refused an officer's commission on principle.
Mertens, a handsome, genial man, is worried about his town. "Brussels is becoming this way," he said, explaining that the people here, having gained some autonomy, do not want to be overwhelmed again by another French-speaking ascendancy.
"More schoolchildren, taught in Flemish, have French-speaking parents. "When I was young I never heard a foreign language here," he said. "Now every day I meet people speaking French."
Marleen Geerts, 48, who teaches computer science to 13-year-olds, said teaching French-speakers took time. "You can't go on with the material if they don't understand it," she said. "It's a struggle." Her school provides language tutoring.
Some Flemish nationalists, such as Johan Daelman, a town councillor and leader of the right-wing, anti-immigrant Vlaams Belang party, want to keep French-speaking immigrants from Africa out, all in the name of keeping Liedekerke "unspoiled" – free of the crime and racial tensions of Brussels.
"We don't want Liedekerke to become like a suburb of Paris," Daelman said, describing the riots, car-burnings and attacks on the police by mostly African immigrants to France. "Big-city problems are coming here, and we want to stop it."
Flemish nationalists have another complaint. Flemish make up 60% of Belgium's population and inhabit the richest part, with much lower unemployment than the French-speaking Wallonia part.
"The French speakers used to rule us," Daelman said. Now, in the national government, he added: "It's not the principle of one man, one vote, and every problem in Belgium now becomes a problem of the communities.
"It's a surrealistic spectacle, and the best answer is to divide the country."
Liedekerke's effort to restrict school outings by language embarrassed both the federal and Flanders government, both seated in Brussels.
Marino Keulen, the Flemish interior minister, vetoed it, but the town plans to proceed anyway. "It's the wrong vision and method," he said. "They can't do it by a language test." He said the problem was the popularity of the Liedekerke programme with Brussels residents "who want to use the facilities of Flanders, which are of a high quality".
Mertens expects his two daughters, 12 and 13, to live in an independent Flanders, and he thinks he may, too. "I'm convinced Belgium can't last," he said.
The fight "will be seen as the start of the war between the Flemish and the French speakers. The Flemish people are becoming more self-aware and more decisive.
"We've been ruled long enough by the French people, and our time has come. It may take 10, 20 or 30 years. But this Belgium will become superfluous."
The full article contains 652 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
