2023-12-19 17:28:00
According to the pretentious Antwerp saying: there is Antwerp, and “de rest is parking”. But from 2025, parking will be reduced somewhat, and the metropolis will expand further. The decision was approved this Monday: Borsbeek will merge with Antwerp and therefore become the 10th district of the largest municipality in Belgium.
But this Antwerp expansion is only a tip of the iceberg of a reorganization of Flanders, for the benefit of larger entities. Examples: Gooik, Gammerages and Herne will merge to form “Pajottegem”; marriage also between Beveren, Kruibeke and Zwijndrecht. To which are added ten other mergers.
Gooik, Gammerages and Hérinnes will become the municipality “Pajottegem” next year
In French-speaking Belgium, on the other hand, the word “fusion” remains taboo. Except in Bastogne and Bertogne, it is sacrilege to talk regarding any reorganization, even though the out of breath municipalities are seeing their accounts in the red. Each entity, even with 2,000 inhabitants, must maintain its own works department, its CPAS, its sweeper… despite potential economies of scale.
The merger of municipalities, a real Walloon “Loch Ness monster”: “We have been talking regarding it for years without ever seeing it”
Certainly, mergers touch on delicate and elementary questions of identity. But the situation of the municipalities is difficult to maintain. Wallonia, and Brussels to another extent, must move away from a dogmatic posture and seek a balance between proximity and efficiency. The debate must, at least, be posed. We still need political courage…
Supracommunality rather than the merger of municipalities, the solution to retaining our collective identity?
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