Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde (; ) is a judicial arrondissement encompassing the bilingual—French and Dutch—Brussels-Capital Region, which coincides with the administrative arrondissement of Brussels-Capital and the surrounding Dutch-speaking area of Halle-Vilvoorde, which in turn coincides with the administrative arrondissement of Halle-Vilvoorde. Halle-Vilvoorde contains several municipalities with language facilities, i.e. municipalities where French-speaking people form a considerable part of the population and therefore have special language rights. The arrondissement is the location of a tribunal of first instance, enterprise tribunal and a labour tribunal.
Prior to the sixth Belgian state reform in 2012, the area also formed the electoral arrondissement of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde (BHV), which, as part of the same 2012 reform, was completely split into a Brussels electoral district and, together with the electoral district of Leuven, into the electoral district of the province of Flemish Brabant. All Belgian electoral arrondissements now coincide with the Belgian provinces. Before the splitting, BHV was an exception in the province of Flemish Brabant because of its official bilingual policy. One peculiarity remaining after the reform is that inhabitants of the six municipalities with language facilities around Brussels can still choose to vote for electoral lists of the Brussels-Capital Region. Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde has been the subject of a highly sensitive dispute within Belgium and was one of the main topics of the 2007–2011 Belgian political crisis. A majority of the Flemings wanted to split it into two arrondissements (like the administrative ones), while the Francophones wanted to keep it as it was or, at a minimum, split it with concessions.
The lists for the federal and European elections were composed of both Dutch and French-language parties (in all other electoral areas it is either Dutch or French-language parties), while the area is partly monolingual Halle-Vilvoorde and bilingual Brussels. Consequently, French-speakers living in the officially monolingual Dutch-speaking electoral district of Leuven in Flanders could vote for French-language parties in BHV, and Dutch-speakers living in the officially monolingual French-speaking electoral district Nivelles in Walloon Brabant could vote for Dutch-language parties in BHV. In 2003, the Court of Arbitration ruled the BHV district to be unconstitutional, citing unequal voting rights. It was abolished as part of the 2012 sixth Belgian state reform.
Background history
The Brussels judicial and electoral arrondissement, corresponding to what became later Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde, has existed since the Belgian Revolution in 1830, when the country was created as a unitary state. At that time, French was the only language in politics, administration, justice, the army and all education except primary, to the disadvantage of Dutch speakers. Some Dutch speakers therefore decided to raise their children in French. Discrimination against the Dutch language started to lessen from the end of the 19th century onwards and came to a complete end in 1967, the year in which the Belgian Constitution got an official Dutch version.
Belgium, as a unitary state, consisted of nine provinces with several arrondissements. Each arrondissement also served as an electoral district, however some of them were later grouped together. One of the nine provinces was Brabant, which consisted of the arrondissements of Brussels, Leuven and Nivelles. Upon the fixation of the language border in 1963, the arrondissement of Brussels was split into the bilingual arrondissement of Brussels-Capital and the unilingual Halle-Vilvoorde, but was retained as grouped arrondissements forming the electoral district of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde. Furthermore, nothing in the judicial structure was reformed, leaving the judicial arrondissement of Brussels unchanged. In the course of history, the administrative and political situation in Belgium has changed considerably and BHV has grown to become a major exception within the contemporary federal state of Belgium.
1920s–1960s
Dynamic system In 1921 Belgium was divided into two monolingual entities (French-speaking Wallonia and Dutch-speaking Flanders). Both languages could be used in Brussels (16 municipalities at that time). A special status was established wherever a large minority used the other language along the linguistic border.
The Belgian law of 28 June 1932 on "the use of languages for administrative matters" reinforced the 1921 law and based the language status of every Belgian municipality on the decennial linguistic census. Over faciliteiten, Taalwetgeving Faciliteitengemeenten The criterion to belong to the Dutch-speaking or French-speaking language area was the attainment of a threshold of 50%; whereas, over 30% the municipal authorities had to offer services in the minority language as well. A municipality could ask the government to change its linguistic status by a royal decree only after a census would have shown a passage over the 30% or 50% threshold.
The 1932 law was implemented only once. As the invasion of Belgium by Germany in 1940 prevented the organization of the decennial census, the next (and last) linguistic census took place in 1947. The results suggested that the progression of French language had kept intensifying. These results were disputed by Flemish politicians who questioned the survey methodology. The percentage of Dutch-speakers had fallen under the 30% threshold in nine municipalities while 12 and nine municipalities had respectively passed over the threshold of 50% and 30% French-speakers. Only one municipality (Rekkem) had fallen under the threshold of 30% French-speakers. In order to mitigate their impact, the results of the 1947 census were not made public until 1954; after that an ad hoc law modifying the 1932 law was voted. Around Brussels, the three municipalities where French-speakers had passed the 50% threshold were transferred to the bilingual area of Brussels (Evere, Ganshoren and Berchem-Sainte-Agathe/Sint-Agatha-Berchem), and language facilities were granted to French-speakers in four of the five municipalities where the percentage of French-speakers had passed the 30% threshold (Drogenbos, Kraainem, Wemmel and Linkebeek).
There are no official figures to support claims, on the French-speaking side, that many more families shifted from Dutch to French after 1947. On the Flemish side, as the decennial linguistic census and the dynamic system were seen as a serious threat to their cultural territory; politicians began opposing them and Flemish mayors boycotted the 1960 census.
Static system In order to offset Flemish fears of uninterrupted progression of the French language into the Dutch-speaking area, a deal was struck in 1961–1962, during the Lefèvre-Spaak government; that the language border would be officially fixed and would not be changed. The linguistic census and dynamic system would be abolished and replaced with a static system: the linguistic status of every municipality would be fixed once and for all.
However, the process of deciding on the geographical position of such a static linguistic border led to bitter resentment, by both communities, including within political parties which had transcended language cleavages until then. Instead of reflecting the usual left/right divide, the laws which fixed the position of the linguistic border were voted (in 1962 and 1963) by the majority formed by Flemish members in Parliament against the minority formed by their French-speaking counterparts.
These laws voted in 1962 and 1963:
Bilingual Brussels was limited to the 19 municipalities it already encompassed since 1954.
In the Flemish Halle and Vilvoorde, out of the seven municipalities where French-speakers had reached between 27% and 48% at the census of 1947, 4 kept the extended linguistic and political facilities they had been granted in 1954 and two more were granted the same (Wezembeek-Oppem and Sint-Genesius-Rode/Rhode-Saint-Genèse). (Arguing that since 1947 many more people had shifted from Dutch to French, French-speaking Members of Parliament demanded that those six municipalities to be detached from the Dutch-speaking area and added to bilingual Brussels, which was fiercely resisted by their Flemish counterparts.)
The same arrangement was made for a number of municipalities on new the border between the Dutch- and French-speaking areas, where local linguistic minorities could enjoy identical facilities: e.g. Flobecq and Enghien in the French-speaking area (where the Dutch-speaking minorities had reached respectively 7.2% and 12.1% in 1947); and Voeren/Fourons in the Dutch-speaking area (where the French-speaking population had reached 56.9% in 1947).
In 1964, the Fédéralistes Démocrates Francophones (FDF), a party advocating the extension of Brussels, was founded. By 1970 all Belgian political parties had split into Dutch-speaking and French-speaking parties. The position of the linguistic border was endorsed in the 1970 State Reform (requiring a two-thirds majority) and, in return for contributing to this endorsement, the French-speaking minority was granted new measures which included the requirement of a special majority (a two-thirds majority in total and at least 50% in each linguistic group) to pass such laws as those of 1962 and 1963 in future; and (article 54) the possibility for any linguistic group to block a bill and open negotiations when it considers that such bill seriously jeopardizes its interests.
According to the French-speaking parties, the compromise also included an agreement that in the future the existing voting and judicial opportunities for the large French-speaking minority around Brussels would be maintained and that the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde electoral and judicial arrondissement would remain unimpaired. The Flemish parties deny this, saying that this was never the intention. Importantly, these opportunities are not enshrined in the Constitution, but in law, and can be amended by a simple majority.
Consequently, Bills intended at splitting the BHV arrondissement have been put forward several times and countered as many times by the French-speaking minority on grounds of the article 54 of the Belgian Constitution.
1970s–1990s The 1970 State reform also created the Dutch, French and German Cultural Communities and laid the foundations for the establishment of three Regions.The first and second State reforms, belgium.be
Later on, in 1980, the Cultural Communities became known as Communities. Also two regions were established: the Flemish Region and the Walloon Region. Although the creation of a Brussels Region was provided for in 1970, the Brussels-Capital Region was not established until a later reform.
The province of Brabant had been one of the nine provinces of Belgium. But due to the arrangement of the linguistic border, which passes through this province, the province was abolished after several reforms:
In 1989 Brussels-Capital Region was created, but the region was still part of the province of Brabant.
With the reform in 1993 making Belgium into a federal state, Brabant became part of all three regions: the Brussels, Flemish and Walloon Region.
Until 1995, the province of Brabant contained the following electoral arrondissements: the Dutch-speaking electoral arrondissement of Leuven (coinciding with the administrative arrondissement of Leuven) the French-speaking electoral arrondissement of Nivelles (coinciding with the administrative arrondissement of Nivelles) the electoral arrondissement of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde (coinciding with both the administrative arrondissement Brussels-Capital and Halle-Vilvoorde). In 1995, this province was split into: the province of Flemish Brabant the province of Walloon Brabant (which coincides to the arrondissement of Nivelles)