A train conductor in Belgium found himself the subject of a formal complaint. His transgression? Greeting passengers with a cheerful “goeiemorgen-bonjour”. His good morning in both Dutch and French was heard while the train was still in Flanders.
According to Belgium’s entrenched language laws, only Dutch should be used officially in the Flemish region. The event says a great deal about the powerful undercurrents of language politics. These undercurrents not only bisect Belgium. They also show the wider cultural and economic splits weakening European fellowship.
These divides were once papered over by the promise of shared prosperity. Now, they are being prised open by potent sentiments of peoplehood. Such feelings are seen starkly in Brexit. They are also seen in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Lines That Are Drawn in Language and Ledgers
Belgium is a country cleaved in two.
The Dutch-speaking Flemish live in the north. The French-speaking Walloons live in the south. They inhabit separate worlds.
Brussels stands as a bilingual island in a Flemish sea.
A linguistic divide of this type is not merely about communication, yet it is deeply interwoven with economic disparity.
Historically, French was the language of the ruling class. Now, Flanders is the economic engine which stirs resentment and separatist feelings.
A north-south economic split within a single polity is a miniature of a larger European occurrence.
Across the continent, a wealthier north often looks askance at a less prosperous south. The resulting friction undermines solidarity. This economic unease is compounded by a cultural chasm. A more liberal West and a more traditional East are set apart by differing historical experiences. At its heart, this is a tale of belonging.
Many people’s loyalties lie with their local and popular identities. A pan-European feeling, despite decades of political and economic linking, remains a remote concept for many European Union citizens. Unity is hard.
The Powerful Call of a People’s Identity
Language is a cornerstone of a people’s self-image.
Shared language, is part of a cultural heritage is kept alive; it is how a sense of belonging is grown. Little wonder, then, that English popular feeling was a motor for the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union.
For many ‘Leave’ voters, the decision was an assertion of ‘Englishness.’ It stood against what they saw as the diluting effect of European integration and immigration. It was a vote to ‘take back control.’ The control was not just of borders, but of a perceived collective character.
The wish for sovereignty, wrapped in the flag of a people’s identity, makes plain the firmly held human need to belong to a distinct group.
Across Europe, in Russia, this same strong mix of collective feeling and identity politics plays out with graver outcomes. The Kremlin has repeatedly used the supposed need to shield Russian speakers. This was a reason given for its military actions in Ukraine. A claim of this sort seeks to paint the invasion as a defensive act.
It is a stark reminder of how language can be weaponised to stir strife and attack the very idea of state sovereignty.
The Mistaken Comfort Found in Cultural Sameness
Opponents might say that nurturing a popular identity through language and cultural preservation is a harmless expression of heritage.
From their point of view, strong collective identities are not automatically a danger to wider European fellowship. They may point to the fact that people can hold multiple identities. They can feel proudly Catalan and Spanish or they feel Bavarian and German, without contradiction.
In this view, the Belgian conductor incident is an overblown case of bureaucratic pettiness. It is not a symptom of a graver illness. These supporters would hold that feelings of peoplehood only grow into a problem when they tip into aggressive chauvinism.
Real Unity Does Not Mean Cultural Uniformity
It is true that a strong sense of self can be positive.
However, this outlook downplays the real-world outcomes of language politics. The Belgian example is not an isolated one. It is a clear display of how language laws are woven into the country’s political fabric. These laws are a legacy of historical power struggles.
The incident with the train conductor, Ilyass Alba, went as far as a formal review. Belgium's language watchdog is the Permanent Commission for Linguistic Control. The complaint against Ilyass Alba was ultimately upheld, deeming the bilingual greeting illegal.
This isn’t just red tape. It’s a reflection of a long and often bitter fight. A fight over culture, status, and power. To dismiss such events is to ignore the very real way that language is used to draw lines between ‘us’ and ‘them’. Europe’s strength lies in its variety. But when that variety is used as a barrier instead of a bridge, the entire structure is put at risk. We must get over this.
Making Bridges Out of Words Instead of Barriers
What is needed is a firm step towards linguistic flexibility.
Official language laws should be revisited. This is especially true in border regions and international transport hubs. Rigid monolingualism should be discouraged. Instead, a policy of practical bilingualism or even multilingualism should be encouraged.
The Belgian state-owned railway company, NMBS/SNCB, itself has called for more flexibility in the language rules. A train travelling across a continent of myriad tongues should be a symbol of connection rather than a scene of linguistic strife.
Imagine if, as a matter of course, train announcements across Europe were made in the local language than English and a neighbouring tongue. Such a small change would be a powerful daily reminder of shared European space. It would be a concrete action. A small step towards fostering a sense of shared experience, rather than reinforcing the invisible divides between us.
The politics of language remains a potent force shaping Europe’s future. The seemingly small affair of a conductor’s greeting lays bare the cracks in the continent’s facade of unity. These fissures run along linguistic, economic, and cultural lines. They are being exploited by movements that threaten to pull the European project apart.
If Europe is to withstand these pressures, it must learn to celebrate its linguistic variety not as a source of division, but as a shared wealth. This begins with simple acts of accommodation. It begins with choosing to say bonjour and goeiemorgen. It begins with understanding that speaking another’s language is not a surrender, but an invitation.
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