85% to 90% of the people in Brussels are French-speaking, according to French-speaking politicians and Wikipedia. But is it true? Not so, says Freddy Neyts, a Dutch-speaking citizen from Brussels and husband of former minister Annemie Neyts. He did some calculations based on census data from the Belgian Directorate-General of Statistics (Statbel) and presented them last Tuesday at a debate in Brussels. The result: during the day 44% of the people in Brussels are French-speakers. At night, when commuters and tourists have left, this mounts to 48%. The numbers are summarized in the following table:



And Mr Neyts concludes: "Every day, 400,000 Dutch-speakers and 430,000 people whose mother tongue is not French or Dutch are staying in Brussels. And 650,000 French-speakers, which is a relative majority but not an absolute majority. At night, people sleep, and there is not much need for multilingual services. But during the day and in the evening, it is all but normal that the Brussels Capital Region is bilingual (French/Dutch) for government services, health services, institutions and companies. Preferably multilingual, out of respect and politeness for immigrants and foreign visitors. Which city or region in the democratic world does not function this way? Only in Brussels it is possible that an arrogant French-speaking class imposes its language upon the population and the visitors, and constantly tries to humiliate people who do not speak French."