Jacqueline Galant had already supported this idea. Invited on Bel RTL this Friday, the mayor of Jurbise returned to the subject at length. Stop tripping over the carpet.
The host asked her if she knew what July 21 meant. “Absolutely”she begins. “I was president of the naturalization commission.” A way to evade the question? Relaunched on the significance of this important date for Belgium, the Walloon MP and the Wallonia-Brussels Federation once more tried to drown the fish. “No, but I’m answering you in relation to the naturalization commission, where I was president. It was really a commission where I saw unacceptable things happen. People came to Belgium, asked for naturalization, obtained naturalization , and did not know any of our three national languages while they were on our territory, sometimes for very long years. And so July 21st is our national holiday.”
An answer that did not satisfy the presenter. “Yes, and it corresponds to what historical event?” Jacqueline Galant, to retort: “The independence of Belgium.” An inaccurate answer because in reality, it is the swearing in of King Leopold I where he swears loyalty to the Constitution. While independence was proclaimed on October 4, 1830. Proof that no one is beyond reproach regarding their knowledge of our country.
“Integration is a failure”
Before getting tangled up, Jacqueline Galant dwelt on the problems of integration in Belgium. “I realize that this is a failure”she explains. “When I go out to Anderlecht, there are whole neighborhoods where I have the impression that ghettos have been created. They are all together, from foreign communities, we no longer see this mix. We see signs, for example only in Arabic in complete neighborhoods. I don’t find it normal in Brussels that we have this welcome in certain neighborhoods.”
She therefore agrees with Conner Rousseau who explained that he did not feel in Belgium when he entered the town of Molenbeek. The Walloon MP wants to work on the integration process which, according to her, is not a perfect success. “For example, people who come to settle in Belgium via family reunification, but are not targeted by the integration process. In the end, they always stay among themselves. And learning one of the national languages of our country is really very important for me.”
Remember that knowing how to speak one of the country’s three languages is one of the criteria for obtaining Belgian nationality. “It is not always respected”she cuts. “I find that when you come to settle in a country, you have to know its culture, its history. We have the education that allows us to have all this knowledge. In a way, it’s normal that a nobody who comes from abroad does not know our stories and our values. Flanders is much more advanced than Wallonia in this area.”
When the journalist pointed out to her that we had a Prime Minister, Yves Leterme, who had sung the Marseillaise instead of the Brabançonne during a report, she estimated that “comparison is not right”.
