Answer

Freedom of language in the spheres of public administration, education, justice and the army was guaranteed by the Belgian constitution of 1831. In practice, free choice in the matter of language enabled officialdom, the magistracy, educational institutions and the army command – where French-speakers held positions of power – to only use the language of their choice, i.e. French. For the Flemish Movement, language legislation, that is, making the use of a specific language in public life legally mandatory was the only strategy to protect the position of Dutch, Belgium´s inferior language, in public administration, the law courts and the education system in Flanders and, with time, have both languages treated on an equal footing. The concept of freedom of language changed in the course of the nineteenth century; with the advance of Dutch as an official language in Flanders and Brussels, francophones started to defend the freedom of the citizen to opt for the language of his choice in order to claim bilingual or French-language public services in the northern part of the country. The argument of freedom of language always served to facilitate and justify the ongoing sociological process of assimilation of the dominant language by speakers of the inferior language.

close window