The provincial authorities in East Flanders are examining a request for Zwijndrecht to leave Antwerp Province and join East Flanders. Until 1923 Zwijndrecht that is just outside the city of Antwerp was in East Flanders. The request comes from the socialist East Flemish provincial council member Peter Hertog. He wants the Flemish Government to start proceedings to change the boundary between Antwerp Province and East Flanders so that Zwijndrecht will become part of East Flanders again after 100 years as part of Antwerp Province.
Mr Hertog told VRT News that "I would like the Flemish Government to be asked to transfer Zwijndrecht that is currently part of Antwerp Province back to East Flanders”. He has tabled a motion for discussion by the provincial council. However, the province would like to spend a month looking at how much enthusiasm there is for the proposal, in the first instance among the people that live in Zwijndrecht. In 1923 Zwijndrecht was transferred from East Flanders to Antwerp Province. Mr Hertog believes that this was a mistake.
"The reason given for transferring Zwijndrecht to Antwerp Province was to enable tunnels to be dug. 100 years later and they are still working on it but not a single tunnel has been dug in Zwijndrecht. The municipality is cut off from the rest of Antwerp Province by a wall, the River Scheldt, while it borders East Flanders and is part of the Waasland”, Mr Hertog said.
Whether Mr Hertog’s efforts will be successful remains to be seen. However, when the Flemish Government recently divided Flanders up into “reference regions” for inter-municipal cooperation Zwijndrecht was the only municipality outside East Flanders to be put into the Waasland reference region.