The municipal authority in the West Flemish town of Wervik will close its border crossing with France during the Belgium’s European Championships match against France on Monday. The town’s Mayor Youro Casier (socialist) says that this is being done to prevent incidents occurring between revival fans. Large concrete block will be put in the middle of the bridge that links Wervik with its French twin, Werviq-Sud. This will prevent cars from crossing the bridge.
West Flemish town to close border crossing on the evening of Belgium’s European Championships clash with France
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It’s not the first time that the municipal authorities in Wervik will have done this during a football match between Belgium and France. 6 years ago a concrete blocks were placed on the bridge during Belgium’s World Cup game against the French in Russia. "This turned out to be a wise decision”, Mayor Casier told VRT News.
"Comines-Warneton took no action then and after the match was confronted with French people crossing the bridge to damage cars and smash windows. I recently had talks with the other mayors of municipalities on the border and we decided to close our bridge to traffic again."
"Stupid things"
"The French are much more chauvinistic than us. We know from experience that they like to come in their cars to provoke and jeer 'the little Belgians' after a French victory. They come here drive around, start honking their horns and get out to dance in the streets. We want to prevent people being provoked into doing stupid things", the Mayor of Wervik added