De Gordel

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De Gordel (Dutch for "the belt") is a highly political cycling and walking event around Brussels, Belgium. The event is organised by the Flemish Community, with the help of the Bloso, each year on the first Sunday of September. It is meant as a symbolic assertion that the municipalities involved are part of Flanders. It also expresses the solidarity of the entire Flemish community (nation) with the Flemings living in these places.

While opinion on the event varies, many French-speakers see this as a political move by the Flemish Community and those who choose to take part (including Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt in 2005) in order to reaffirm their belief that the area covered by the event is a purely Flemish. In 2006, Minister-President of Flanders Yves Leterme said: "The Gordel is a pleasant way to say that we want to keep the villages around Brussels Flemish."^[1]

So close to Brussels, and passing through several Dutch-speaking towns with French-speaking majorities in some areas, this event gains wide television coverage through news reports and serves as a very visual reminder that linguistic and political divisions among neighbouring regions and even neighbours themselves can often run deep in the area immediately surrounding Brussels.

1 Incidents
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Incidents

De Gordel has fallen victim to sabotage actions several times in the past. During the 2006 event, local police caught a French-speaking nationalistic lawyer and another person throwing thumbtacks on the road. ^[2]