4.3. Voeren

Voeren is a Flemish enclave, squeezed between the Walloon province of Liège and the Netherlands. Before the language laws, it actually was a part of the province of Liège, but it was turned over to the province of Limburg later on. In exchange, Komen became a part of Hainaut. Both communes got the status of commune with language facilities, just like the Six around Brussel.

The French-speaking group in the commune has formed a political movement, called Action Fouronnaise (Voeren's Action), and runs at municipal elections under the name of Retour à Liège (Return to Liège). As the names says, they strive for a return to the province of Liège, and a French-speaking status. The head of this movement is José Happart , also member of the Parti Socialiste (the Walloon Socialist Party PS), on which he had some influence until recently. Up till now, this movement received a full majority in the municipal council, though at the last electiosn in 1994, they received a majority of only one seat. For the future, it looks like there will be a Flemish majority after the elections of 2000.

Voeren's "merry-go-round" has been a constant in Belgian politics whenever there are communautarian problems. Usually, the Walloon parties threaten that José Happart would become maire of the commune, as a monolingual French-speaking, if one or another demand isn't met. In practice, it turns out that Flemings meet some structural demand, both in Voeren and on other problems, in exchange for the Walloon symbolic indulgence that José Happart won't become maire for the time being.

Most probably, this method will soon be used again, because of fears that the Flemish will held a majority in the municipal council after the elections of 2000. In July 1995, former vice-prime minister for the PS Philippe Moureaux said that the Walloons will demand a bi-regional status for Voeren at the next round of communautarian negotiations. This could have as a result that, if elected, the Flemish majority won't be able to do much in Voeren, so that a further Flemishing of the communes will be stopped.

The next contribution is from Rik Palmans , picked from the newsgroup news:soc.culture.belgium.

Before 1963, more than 90% of the population spoke a local dialect, which surely could be considered to be a Dutch dialect. The Church masses all were in Dutch, and the language used at school was exclusively Dutch everywhere. Only in Remersdael an exception to this existed, namely the so-called "transmutation classes". Lots of children followed primary school partly or completely in a school in a Walloon neighbouring commune though. An even bigger part, possibly the majority, followed secondary school in French, in Visé or Herve. The main reason was that it was closer to home, and that parents thought that you had to know French for your professional carreer. This didn't mean that the parents were pro-Liège. A lot of pro-Flemish inhabitants followed secondary school in French, and had later usually also their higher education in French. Only the most pro-Flemish parents sent their children to schools in Tongeren or other Flemish schools, but usually this meant, because of the geographical isolation of Voeren, boarding-school. There was one exception: a French boarding-school for girls in 's-Gravenvoeren, but most of the pupils there came from outside Voeren. Some of them even came from the Netherlands, since girls were sent to Belgium especially to learn French.

French-speaking schools did not appear until after the turn-over of Voeren to Limburg. This transfer worked - how paradoxal this may sound - as a catalyst for the Frenchification of Voeren. An important reason for this were the old relations between local notables and the politicians in Liège. The Flemish politicians rather were related to inhabitants represented in the opposition of the municipal council or in corporate life in the communes. So, those local notables saw that their relations, which are very important for a local politician, turned worthless. They initiated the resistance against the turn-over, and those belonging to their party followed them in this. The constrast pro-Liège/pro-Flanders is thus a consequence of old municipal politics. And to which party you belonged depended on random factors like family or corporate life, more than on which language you spoke at home. Many families were (are) divided by this language war, because brothers and sisters in one family did not necessarily belong to the same local political party.

This contrast is by far the most important reason for the later lingual split. The Dutch antropologue, Hans van Laar , made an excellent study [VLA88], in particular about 's-Gravenvoeren, and showed that it goes back to the period between the two World Wars. Even though everybody still spoke the same language at that point of time, the "separation in minds" started then. Some of the inhabitants thought that good patriots were by definition French-speaking. Still, the French-speaking inhabitants call their Dutch-speaking fellow-villagers to easily "fascist".

Other factors are less important, even though they are often raised, especially in pro-Flemish circles. As an example: the dependence of tenants versus the French-speaking landlords (probaly only in the East of the region of importance), and employment in Wallonia (lots of pro-Flemish inhabitants of Voeren work in the environs of Liège, and actually are most wanted because they are perfectly bilingual).

Of course, economical factors had also their part in it. Farmers sold their cattle mostly to Walloon cattle-dealers. Most of the villagers did their shopping in Aubel, where they often still could speak their own dialect, in Herve, Visé or Liège, but also in Maastricht (the Netherlands). Employment meant in the first place a job in the environs of Liège, more than in the Netherlands, and not at all in Belgian Limburg, which, for most of the inhabitants of Voeren, was far away and unknown territory. This means that most of the villagers were used to speak French, and found it normal that you had to learn that language. Moreover, in the thirthies, the municipal council pressed the point at the province of Liège that education of French in the schools of Voeren be intensified. But the provincial council rejected the request at that time...

Most of the inhabitants of Voeren knew the Dutch standard language only from school or church. Church services were exclusively in Dutch, and basically still are. Only in Remersdael there are French-spoken masses, and at "personal matters" (a wedding for example), people can request for a French-spoken service. As a consequence, most of the pro-Liège who go to church, follow church services outside Voeren.

There is one more important indication of the language ratios in Voeren in the sixties, namely the "language-referenda" of 1947. Belgium knew since its independence such language-censuses, but particularly after World War I, these evolved into referenda. These censuses were responsible for the shift to the North of the language border every decade. They opened the door for what then was called "progress", namely Frenchification. (Where could you get in the world if you only knew that Flemish of the peasants?) In this way, the amount of French-speaking in Voeren rose from 18% in 1930 to 52% in 1947. In other villages, the same impossible results were obtained. That's why Flanders demanded the abolition of these censuses, which eventually led to the constitutional fixation of the language border.

In 1963, the separation of minds in Voeren was already complete, even though the pro-Liège of Voeren could hardly be considered to be French-speaking or Walloon. But the Flemish politicians underestimated everything badly. They thought that the pro-Liège would put up with the turn-over after some grumbling. Maybe they would have done so, if Flanders would have reacted a bit more diplomatically, and would have sought for cooperation with the local notables. Now, 33 years later, the pro-Liège have become real French-speaking. On the other hand, the other local political party has become Flemish in the same way, in the sense that they now consider themselves as citizens of the Flemish region. Surely, there hasn't been a "flamandisation" of Voeren, but the Flemish reflexes have been increased strongly at that halve of the population.

The ratios haven't changed much since then. Although the ratios may vary from village to village, for all six villages together, the ratio is about 60:40 in pro-Liège/pro-Flemish. This ratio has shifted a bit in favour of the pro-Flemish recently, but this may have more to do with the frustation of some pro-Liège over the neglection of the municipal policy by the council, in which the pro-Liège hold a majority. Maybe that the input of the 13% Dutchmen at the elections in 2000 may tilt the scales.

So far the contribution from Rik Palmans .

Jean-Louis Xhonneux , president of the OCMW of Voeren and member of the Action Fouronnaise, defends his point of view on the Internet as well [XHO96].