“To see an AH-88 license plate is quite shocking. Anyone with the slightest interest in history knows what it is.” By pressing the orange Alert us button, Gilles wanted to express his astonishment at certain personalized license plates. Can we write everything? Who controls this system?
So on the roads of Brussels, “near Brussels-North, to be more precise“, Gilles is surprised to find that the car directly in front of him had a rather… amazing personalized license plate on it.”This plate shocks us deeply”, he explains at first. “How did the DIV authorize such a plate? There is no control when ordering a personalized plate?“
It’s hard to believe in a coincidence
Indeed, the inscription can shock: AH refers to the initials of Adolf Hitler and the number 88 is a link to the letter H, eighth letter of the alphabet and referring to the expression hail Hitler. “I mightn’t see the person driving, but around me, the other cars didn’t seem to mind, no one honked for example…“, explains Gilles. “But people who take these kinds of plates know that it’s a code, that it will go unnoticed by most road users.”.
If the inscription is indeed a code, then one might think that it is another reference, much less shameful. But for Gilles, it is still difficult to believe in a coincidence. “It might be the initials of someone called Adrien H. who was born in 1988, for example. But it seems to me that hard to believe that this is not done on purpose, and with bad intentions”.
Another day, another amazing plate
Gilles seems to have a gift for spotting plates like no other. A few days later, he came across a vehicle registered Tities. This rather colloquial English word might be translated as boobs in our language. “It makes you wonder how the checks are carried out! It’s less shocking than the first plate, but it’s still quite special to see such a word on our roads“.
As a reminder, since 2014 in Belgium, a personalized license plate can be requested by a driver, at an additional cost of 1,000 euros. Personalized plates must always contain at least one letter and the combination cannot exceed 8 characters. These registrations are also not authorized for mopeds, taxis or agricultural tractors.
Requests yet verified
According to the SPF Mobilité website, any combination is however checked by a DIV agent. A blacklist, which the applicant is unable to see prior to their application, has been compiled and would be consulted prior to DIV approval. In 2016, RTL Info had already been questioned by the FPS Mobilitywho spoke at the time of the “grey zone” in connection with applications for registration as Dutroux or SS.
We tried the experiment once more in 2022. On the FPS Mobility site, the RTL Info editorial staff tried to see if certain suspicious combinations were accepted or not by the site.
As we can see, if Hitler et Stalin have no place on a license plate, “Dutroux” is authorized. When we try to enter the plate spotted by Gilles, we are simply offered an alternative, the plate being, in fact, already taken.
As for the “Tities” plate, its French counterpart is also offered by the SPF Mobilité website.
“There are controls, but it is necessary to strengthen them and we hope that the DIV will be more vigilant regarding requests for personalized plates”, admits Litte Frooninckx, spokesperson for Georges Gilkinet, Minister of Mobility. “Some combinations are still prohibited. For example, Al Qaeda, KKK, insults, or “Police” for obvious reasons. However, the example of the AH-88 plate is complicated to manage, because it might have been initials and a date of birth“.
If checks are therefore made, there are still flaws. The reinforcements requested by the minister’s office are probably welcome: since 2016, requests for license plates have continued to grow, as shown in the table below.
