The Belgian King Philippe and Queen Mathilde completed their three-day state visit to France in Lille on Wednesday October 16.
A royal arrival in front of the Lille crowd. King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium were able to discover the wealth of the capital of Flanders on Wednesday October 16. Welcomed by Mayor Martine Aubry and Valérie Létard, Minister of Housing and Urban Renewal, the royal couple experienced a crowd in Lille.
“It’s always so beautiful here?”, King Philippe laughs with the curious people who have come to see him. “It’s because you arrived that the weather is like this,” one of them replies.
“I saw the queen who got out of her car in front of me. She even spoke to me, asked me if I was from Lille, my studies and wished me success. I said to myself, is great”, rejoices another Lille resident.
More than a thousand people were present for this historic visit, curious people but also passers-by who were unaware of this royal passage. “We came in tourist mode, we didn’t know they were coming. We saw the queen and the king, it was great,” smiles one of them.
“The same family”
The long state visit of Philippe and Mathilde began Monday October 14 in Paris, where they spent two days, before arriving in Lille. Three days in France to honor the cultural, economic and historical proximity between the two countries but also with the Lille region.
From the Eurometropolis to gastronomy, the relations between Hauts-de-France and Belgium are deep and rich. It was in the heart of the century-old Lille opera house that King Philippe received the city’s medal from Martine Aubry during a lunch.
“The links between Belgium and Lille and the region are major, the historical, cultural, economic destinies that we have together are intertwined. From Tournai to the Eurometropolis, we have moved forward together and weaved a destiny,” declared the mayor of Lille.
“What is ultimately most important are the personal links with our Belgian friends. We often have the impression of being part of the same family,” concluded the councilor.
For his part, King Philippe assured that “Lille is of particular importance for the Belgians”. “With its cultural and gastronomic life, its ancient palaces and its famous flea market, your metropolis is for us the most beautiful springboard between Belgium and France,” he added.
Meeting with economic players
This lunch allowed the king to discuss long-term unemployment and industry with Martine Aubry, said during a press briefing the one who is also president of the Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai Eurometropolis, straddling both countries.
The king and queen then visited the Euratechnologies start-up incubator, presented by the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as “a good example” of Franco-Belgian cooperation “capable of competing with large European cities”.
This visit to Euratechnologies, “a very strong request from the king, passionate about new technologies and digital” according to Martine Aubry, was an opportunity to discuss the work carried out in the adjacent district of Bois-Blancs in terms of “social diversity and cultural, in a place which was only wasteland and social housing ten years ago”.
The King and Queen of the Belgians then concluded their visit to Lille, and to France, with a military ceremony on the Place de la République.
The last state visit to France by a Belgian sovereign dates back to 2003, when Albert II and his wife Paola, Philippe’s parents, were welcomed by Jacques Chirac. The sovereign had already gone to Lille at the time.
