The flagrant violation of language legislation is just another daily event for the Brussels government

Brussels MP Gilles Verstraeten questioned Minister Maron in the Committee on Health and assistance to citizens about the flagrant violation of language legislation in Brussels. “Language discrimination gets no attention at all from this government, which nevertheless preaches about combating discrimination.”

Language legislation should guarantee that all Belgians can enjoy bilingual services in their capital city. “But this issue does not interest the government, especially not Dutch-speaking Health Minister Elke Van den Brandt, who does not even bother to answer my questions about it.”

Barely 5% of recruitments comply with the language legislation

The monitoring of compliance with that language legislation by the local authorities is in the hands of the Brussels vice-governor. His 2020 report shows that never before have so many suspension decisions been issued. In total, the vice-governor suspended 1,867 recruitments in Brussels municipalities and PSWCs last year, every one of them because they were in violation of the language legislation. The situation is so bad that only 5% (!) of the contractual appointments at the PCSWs complied with the language legislation. “But we don’t actually know the real size of the problem. Some local municipalities refuse to keep the vice-governor informed about the appointments, despite repeated insistence, also as regards the obligatory Dutch-French parity at the managerial level,” Gilles Verstraeten says.

The Brussels government never annuls illegal appointments

After such a suspension decision, it is up to the government of the Brussels-Capital Region to annul the appointment. However, this rarely happens, let alone that the vice-governor’s report is discussed within the government. “Minister Maron confirmed the latter today in committee with a smile. “Language discrimination gets no attention at all from this government, which nevertheless preaches about combating discrimination.”