Why are Flemish students still told that Brussels is a “bilingual city” when Dutch is a complete minority in every gemeente/commune?

by sanandrios

20 comments

  2. Omdat het bij grondwet een tweetalige stad is en de historische en huidige hoofdstad van de Vlaamse gemeenschap.

  3. The percentage of French speaking citizens is also not correct, as in practice by default everyone is registered as French speaking. Even if they speak Dutch, Arab, English, … as their mother tongue.

  5. Because Brussels is the capital of all of Belgium, and in Belgium more people speak Dutch than French? And therefore the administration is (mostly) bilingual?

    Your statistics are incomplete and outdated btw. 22% of Brussels inhabitants can speak Dutch: [https://www.bruzz.be/actua/samenleving/nieuwe-taalbarometer-stijgend-aantal-brusselaars-kent-frans-nederlands-noch](https://www.bruzz.be/actua/samenleving/nieuwe-taalbarometer-stijgend-aantal-brusselaars-kent-frans-nederlands-noch)

  6. The correct wording is “Bruxelles est bilinguement francophone”

  7. As far as what people speak natively french is also a minority.

  8. **FROM A DUTCH-SPEAKING CITY TO A MULTILINGUAL CITY**

    Historically, Brussels is a Dutch-speaking city. From its origin in the tenth century until the eighteenth century, Brussels was even an exclusively Dutch-speaking city. In the nineteenth century, after Belgium’s independence, the linguistic dynamics changed. Because Belgium chose French as its official language, French gradually dominated public life and became the language of justice, administration, the military, culture, and the media. As the language of the political and economic elite, French became a symbol of prestige.

    As the newly established capital, Brussels experienced a population explosion. In 1830, Brussels had 50,000 inhabitants. By 1875, it had 250,000 inhabitants and by 1914, 750,000 inhabitants. As a political, financial, and economic center, Brussels attracted an upper and middle-class French-speaking population. It was only possible to attend primary and secondary school in French, causing the language to spread among the lower social classes as well. Many immigrants, the majority from Flanders, were forced to speak French if they wanted to climb the social ladder. As a result, the Frenchification of Brussels continued rapidly.

    **OFFICIALLY BILINGUAL**

    When Belgium was subdivided into four linguistic regions in 1962, the city of Brussels became officially bilingual. The bilingual region was limited to the nineteen municipalities that already constituted the Brussels Agglomeration. In 1989, Brussels’ boundaries and its bilingual status were reconfirmed. This decision was taken by a special parliamentary majority. In both chambers of the Federal Parliament, two-thirds of the members approved the law with a majority in both the Dutch-speaking and French-speaking linguistic groups. Given that Flemings constitute a minority in Brussels, the same applies to their political representation in Brussels. Today, Flemings have guaranteed representation in the Brussels Parliament. When a Brussels municipality appoints a Flemish alderman, it receives additional financial resources.

    source: [http://www2.derand.be/livingintranslation/fr/Bruxelles_bilingue.php](http://www2.derand.be/livingintranslation/fr/Bruxelles_bilingue.php)

  9. It is the nonsense that leads to three ‘Dutch speaking’ seats of the traditional Flemish party ‘Team Fouad Ahidar’ upholding Flemish values by not even thanking their voters in Flemish after winning their seats in the Brussels parliament. The Flemish don’t like Brussels, they don’t want to live in Brussels and no-one, not even the governmental organisations such as gemeenten or regio Brussels cares about it.

  10. let nature take its course… dutch language speaker minority, despite being a sensitive topic for years, and lots of efforts to counteract the decline of speakers, it seems like it’s not working,… so be it

  11. I’m sure there are more people who speak Arab compared to Dutch

  12. It doesn’t have to be 50-50% to be considered bilingual. This question doesn’t make any sense.

  14. 20 jaar geleden werden franstaligen betaald (deel huur) om in vlaams brabant te gaan wonen… Ze mogen van mijn part brussel hebben.

  15. Even Jette and they have the Dutch speaking UZ Brussels even…

  16. Sounds like you’re trying to avoid Dutch… there are plenty of events in Dutch or for Dutch-speakers in Brussels, from the gemeenschapscentra to theatres like KVS, Beursshouwburg, etc. The Dutch-speaking libraries and Muntpunt regularly organise events in Dutch. If you have children you can bet they can join all kinds of Dutch-language organisations.

  19. It’s for symbolic reasons. Brussels is the capital of Belgium therefore it make sense that it both acts asa dutch and french city

    Also even if there isn’t that much dutch speaker that lives in the city, there is still a lot of them that comes to work in Brussels

  20. LMAO waar heb je die onzin vandaan?

    nee het is niet omdsat iemand niet nederlandstalig is dat die franstalig is. Grappig dat ze dat steeds nog zo zien in brussel.

    Franstaligheid zit rond iets van een 50-60% in brussels, nl een 10%.

    ANd its so by law, just like belgium is 3 with german even if the german speaking are 0.x% of belgians.

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