Despite local residents having voted “no” in a consultative referendum, meetings of Antwerp City and Borsbeek Municipal councils both voted in favour of a merger on Monday evening. This means that from 1 January 2025 Borsbeek will become the city of Antwerp’s 10th district. Antwerp is unique in Flanders in that it has a two-tier system of municipal government with a city council and district councils.
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Borsbeek to become Antwerp’s 10th district
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In Borsbeek a large number of local residents were in the public gallery during the council meeting. Most of them were opposed to Borsbeek becoming part of the City of Antwerp. The merger has been the source of an at time highly-charged debate. In a consultative referendum on the merger 77% of those that took part voted to keep Borsbeek’s status as an autonomous municipality.
Nevertheless, the municipal coalition that is made up of Flemish nationalists and the local party Iedereen Borsbeek (Everyone Borsbeek) remained adamant that the merger should go ahead. The coalition argued that a merger is a financial necessity and that the City of Antwerp was the only municipality with which it would be feasible for Borsbeek to merge.
The only opposition party, the far-right Vlaams Belang said that too little effort had been made to find an alternative municipality with which to merge. The party argued that it would be more financially beneficial to Borsbeek for it to merge with another municipality than Antwerp.
The Mayor of Borsbeek Dis Van Berckelaer and several Alderman said that other municipalities had been approach, but they had expressed no interest in a merger. He added that the merger with Antwerp would not only be financially beneficial, but also that Borsbeek will be able to keep its identity a a district within the city.
When the merger was put to the vote, the two Vlaams Belang and one councilor from a coalition party voted against, two councilors abstained and 16 voted for the merger.