Malik Ben Achour (PS): “We can reduce the number of municipalities in Wallonia by a third through mergers”

Verviers, a textbook case

“The situation in Verviers is a textbook case in terms of failed municipal mergershe says straight away. In the initial project dating back to the 1970s, Verviers was to merge 15 municipalities. In the end, we only merged six… And all this, for very political reasons. Ultimately, the municipal territory does not correspond to the real living area and does not allow control of the green belt around Verviers either in terms of housing or in economic terms.”

Compared to Willy Demeyer’s comments, Malik Ben Achour wants to emphasize the impoverishment of urban centers, which wealthier residents are fleeing for the benefit of municipalities in the “green suburbs”. “On mergers, the substance of the debate does not only concern the rationalization of public structures and economies of scale. The real issue is responding to the challenge of peri-urbanization. When Herve, Theux or Jalhay give planning permission for 250 four-storey villas, it is the Verviers middle classes who buy them. This dynamic is a vacuum for the middle classes and creates territorial and social divides. Verviers offers jobs – nearly 19,000 – but has an unemployment rate of 25%… The challenge of mergers is also to make the place of work and place of residence coincide from the perspective of taxation. fairer, since we pay our taxes where we live. But mergers are not a magic solution either.“

For Malik Ben Achour, it is especially the province of Liège which is lagging behind in the regrouping of local institutions: “The dynamics of mergers in Hainaut have been much more ambitious and closer to real living areas than in the province of Liège. For example, Tournai has merged 30 municipalities; Mons, 20; Charleroi, 15. In comparison, in Liège, only nine municipalities have merged. Was there a desire, at the time, to prevent Liège from becoming a French-speaking Antwerp? Did the local baronies resist? In any case, Liège did not experience the merger that it should have experienced. The urban continuum is divided up by a myriad of municipalities. In Liège, we could have merged twice as many municipalities.“

Going beyond parochial logic

The PS senator now invites political decision-makers to show political courage in order to overcome local reluctance and resolve this opposition between urban centers and their periphery. But how far to go, knowing that there are 261 municipalities in Wallonia? “SOn the basis of a territorial logic, in order to eliminate anomalies and bring together urban continua and give cities the possibility of controlling their direct periphery, we can easily reduce the number of Walloon municipalities by a third.“Faced with localist reflexes,”with parochial logic” which could prevent new mergers, Malik Ben Achour believes that it will undoubtedly be necessary to go beyond the possibility of mergers on a voluntary basis alone.

Willy Demeyer (PS), mayor of Liège: “If Liège were French, it would already have four to five tram lines”

Like in Paris

Finally, the socialist parliamentarian expresses a reservation with regard to his own proposal. All these possible mergers must also take into account the sense of identity of the inhabitants. “Historically, the municipal fact precedes the state fact, the municipalities are prior to the State. The municipalities remain the first place of identification for citizens: we are first and foremost from Liège, from Verviers, from Brussels, from Tournais… We must not break this feeling of deep attachment. Whatever the institutional solution, this proximity link must be kept in mind. As is done in Paris, for example, with district town halls.“