Answer

As time went on, the proposition of creating monolingual regions – where all public services had to be provided in one language only – did indeed win the day. Yet, this territorial solution to Belgium´s language conflict was not the only strategy proposed. Universal or national bilingualism was another option that was taken very seriously by all those involved. In such a scenario, the expectation was not just that national politicians and civil servants in the ministeries in Brussels would be bilingual, but also that officials in both the Flemish and Walloon regions would know and use both national languages. However, this proposition was vetoed by Walloon politicians who were not prepared to accept that the speakers of what was still Belgium´s language of prestige could be forced to have command of Dutch.

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