WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.540 Welcome to the Deep Dive. We're really thrilled 00:00:03.540 --> 00:00:05.280 you're joining us today because we are taking 00:00:05.280 --> 00:00:08.080 this massive stack of historical sources. A huge 00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:10.339 stack. Yeah, just boxes of political records 00:00:10.339 --> 00:00:13.259 and biographical notes. And we're synthesizing 00:00:13.259 --> 00:00:15.119 all of that into a highly personalized journey 00:00:15.119 --> 00:00:18.219 through a truly fascinating slice of modern European 00:00:18.219 --> 00:00:21.739 history. It really is. We are unpacking the life 00:00:21.739 --> 00:00:25.140 and the... Honestly, incredibly complex political 00:00:25.140 --> 00:00:28.199 career of Robert DeVos. We're talking about a 00:00:28.199 --> 00:00:30.839 Belgian politician who navigated what has to 00:00:30.839 --> 00:00:33.560 be one of the trickiest linguistic and cultural 00:00:33.560 --> 00:00:36.460 divides in all of Europe. We've got a detailed 00:00:36.460 --> 00:00:38.600 historical rundown of his life, stretching from 00:00:38.600 --> 00:00:43.079 his birth in 1916 all the way to 1996. And the 00:00:43.079 --> 00:00:45.100 mission for this deep dive is to figure out exactly 00:00:45.100 --> 00:00:47.659 what happens when local on -the -ground identity 00:00:47.659 --> 00:00:50.219 violently clashes with rigid national borders. 00:00:50.280 --> 00:00:52.840 That's top -down bureaucracy. Right. Because 00:00:52.840 --> 00:00:55.359 Dibos' career served as the ultimate real -world 00:00:55.359 --> 00:00:57.619 case study for understanding that specific tension. 00:00:58.119 --> 00:01:01.259 But before we jump into the timeline of his life, 00:01:01.359 --> 00:01:03.619 I need to set a very clear boundary for you, 00:01:03.679 --> 00:01:06.019 the listener. The source material we are analyzing 00:01:06.019 --> 00:01:08.620 today touches on some heavily charged historical 00:01:08.620 --> 00:01:12.019 and political realities. We are going to be discussing 00:01:12.019 --> 00:01:15.099 the deeply entrenched linguistic divides between 00:01:15.099 --> 00:01:18.420 French and Flemish speakers in Belgium, alongside 00:01:18.420 --> 00:01:21.700 the intense historical rivalries between the 00:01:21.700 --> 00:01:24.140 Christian Social Party and the Belgian Socialist 00:01:24.140 --> 00:01:27.260 Party. Yeah, it gets heated. It does. So we want 00:01:27.260 --> 00:01:29.879 to. Be entirely clear up front. We are not taking 00:01:29.879 --> 00:01:32.439 any sides here. We are not endorsing any political 00:01:32.439 --> 00:01:35.079 party, nor are we taking a stance on the linguistic 00:01:35.079 --> 00:01:38.299 debates of Belgium. Right. Our job today is strictly 00:01:38.299 --> 00:01:41.180 and impartially to report on the historical facts, 00:01:41.400 --> 00:01:44.640 the constitutional events and the ideas exactly 00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:46.739 as they are laid out in the original source material. 00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:49.519 We are here to understand the mechanics of history, 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:52.280 not to judge the participants. Exactly. We're 00:01:52.280 --> 00:01:54.799 acting purely as your guides through the facts. 00:01:55.060 --> 00:01:58.079 And those facts tell a story that feels almost 00:01:58.079 --> 00:02:00.219 fictional at times. I want you to imagine something 00:02:00.219 --> 00:02:02.260 for a second. Go for it. Imagine waking up one 00:02:02.260 --> 00:02:04.340 morning, you know, grabbing the newspaper and 00:02:04.340 --> 00:02:06.719 finding out that your hometown, the place you 00:02:06.719 --> 00:02:09.400 live, the streets you walk, the community, you 00:02:09.400 --> 00:02:11.860 know, has been entirely transferred to a completely 00:02:11.860 --> 00:02:14.039 different province. Overnight, basically. Right. 00:02:14.099 --> 00:02:16.080 A province with a different dominant language. 00:02:16.520 --> 00:02:19.939 And the reason? Simply because your town lacked 00:02:19.939 --> 00:02:23.360 the political muscle to fight off a massive bureaucratic 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:26.939 decision made by politicians miles and miles 00:02:26.939 --> 00:02:29.639 away. It sounds wild. It sounds totally wild, 00:02:29.680 --> 00:02:32.379 but reading through these sources, that is exactly 00:02:32.379 --> 00:02:35.360 the reality that hit Davos' town. But grasping 00:02:35.360 --> 00:02:37.800 how a modern European nation arrives at a dramatic 00:02:37.800 --> 00:02:40.680 point like that requires us to start at the beginning. 00:02:41.289 --> 00:02:43.250 We need to look at the foundation of the man 00:02:43.250 --> 00:02:45.430 who would eventually find himself at the center 00:02:45.430 --> 00:02:47.969 of that very battle. Fighting against his own 00:02:47.969 --> 00:02:50.069 national government. Exactly. So looking at the 00:02:50.069 --> 00:02:52.550 notes on his early life, the context of his birth 00:02:52.550 --> 00:02:55.449 immediately jumps out. Robert Maurice Georges 00:02:55.449 --> 00:02:59.469 Davos was born on November 18th, 1916. Which 00:02:59.469 --> 00:03:02.370 puts his birth right in the grueling middle of 00:03:02.370 --> 00:03:05.849 the First World War. Yeah. He is born in Oostrozebeek, 00:03:05.949 --> 00:03:08.659 which is a small town in West Flanders. And at 00:03:08.659 --> 00:03:11.180 the time, this area was the absolute beating 00:03:11.180 --> 00:03:13.900 heart of the flax industry. So from day one, 00:03:13.960 --> 00:03:16.360 he is steeped in a place defined by hard agricultural 00:03:16.360 --> 00:03:19.319 and industrial labor. Sitting squarely in the 00:03:19.319 --> 00:03:22.319 shadow of a global conflict. Right. You also 00:03:22.319 --> 00:03:24.340 have to factor in his family background here. 00:03:24.680 --> 00:03:27.300 He is born into a devout Roman Catholic family, 00:03:27.400 --> 00:03:30.259 which deeply informs his entire early trajectory. 00:03:30.740 --> 00:03:33.259 The path for an intelligent young man in that 00:03:33.259 --> 00:03:36.120 specific demographic often led to education and 00:03:36.120 --> 00:03:38.819 DeVos pursues it vigorously. He gets a teaching 00:03:38.819 --> 00:03:41.219 degree, right? He does. From what was then known 00:03:41.219 --> 00:03:43.939 as the Hodger Institute for Pedagogy in Ghent 00:03:43.939 --> 00:03:47.180 over in East Flanders. And armed with this degree, 00:03:47.340 --> 00:03:50.300 he makes a move in the late 1930s, specifically 00:03:50.300 --> 00:03:54.460 the 1937 to 38 academic year that will. expectedly 00:03:54.460 --> 00:03:56.360 define the rest of his life. He moves south. 00:03:56.539 --> 00:03:59.020 About 20 miles south of his hometown to a place 00:03:59.020 --> 00:04:02.000 called Mooskron. He takes a job teaching at the 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:04.340 St. Joseph Episcopal College, a secondary school. 00:04:04.680 --> 00:04:07.080 Okay, let's unpack this because diving into the 00:04:07.080 --> 00:04:10.060 history of Mooskron reveals it is not just any 00:04:10.060 --> 00:04:12.719 standard Belgian town and St. Joseph's isn't 00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:14.840 just a run -of -the -mill teaching job. No, not 00:04:14.840 --> 00:04:16.860 at all. First of all, St. Joseph's is a Francophone 00:04:16.860 --> 00:04:20.319 college. Davos is teaching in French and he stays 00:04:20.319 --> 00:04:23.899 in this specific teaching role until 1945. But 00:04:23.899 --> 00:04:26.199 the town of Muscron itself has this completely 00:04:26.199 --> 00:04:31.279 unique, almost defiant historical vibe. The sources 00:04:31.279 --> 00:04:33.819 point out that Muscron is famously known for 00:04:33.819 --> 00:04:36.819 these 16th century Protestant rebels called the 00:04:36.819 --> 00:04:39.439 Hurlis. The Hurlis are a crucial piece of the 00:04:39.439 --> 00:04:42.240 psychological puzzle here. These were 16th century 00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:44.579 Protestant rebels who fiercely fought against 00:04:44.579 --> 00:04:47.060 the top -down, centralized Spanish Catholic rule 00:04:47.060 --> 00:04:49.480 of the era. And Muscron celebrated them. They 00:04:49.480 --> 00:04:51.980 did. So you have a town with a baked -in legacy 00:04:51.980 --> 00:04:54.839 of municipal rebellion and resistance to distant 00:04:54.839 --> 00:04:57.680 capitals. What's fascinating here is how geography 00:04:57.680 --> 00:05:00.980 and history dictate destiny. Muscron sits right 00:05:00.980 --> 00:05:03.220 on the volatile Franco -Flemish language frontier. 00:05:03.519 --> 00:05:05.579 So you've got Davos, a Catholic teacher from 00:05:05.579 --> 00:05:07.540 a Flemish background, embedding himself in a 00:05:07.540 --> 00:05:10.560 Francophone school inside a town famous for historical 00:05:10.560 --> 00:05:13.240 protest against central authority. He absorbs 00:05:13.240 --> 00:05:17.000 this regional stubbornness. It acts as a very 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:19.600 potent foreshadowing for the political challenges 00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:22.519 he is going to face decades later when he has 00:05:22.519 --> 00:05:24.779 to fight his own central government. It seems 00:05:24.779 --> 00:05:26.879 like the absolute perfect training ground for 00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:29.540 a future politician. But what really surprised 00:05:29.540 --> 00:05:32.699 me in the research was his pivot from teaching 00:05:32.699 --> 00:05:36.600 to public life. It doesn't happen in a political 00:05:36.600 --> 00:05:38.980 backroom or a boardroom. No, it happens in the 00:05:38.980 --> 00:05:41.860 world of health insurance. Yeah. During the 1940s, 00:05:41.860 --> 00:05:44.540 Devo starts getting heavily involved in the Kristallnike 00:05:44.540 --> 00:05:46.740 Ziegenklaasen, the Christian health insurance 00:05:46.740 --> 00:05:49.939 movement. By 1945, he is the deputy chairman 00:05:49.939 --> 00:05:52.100 of the nationwide federation of these organizations, 00:05:52.500 --> 00:05:55.639 the Kristallnike Mutualität. Going from a local 00:05:55.639 --> 00:05:58.319 school teacher to a national deputy chairman 00:05:58.319 --> 00:06:00.439 of a massive health federation in less than a 00:06:00.439 --> 00:06:02.399 decade requires a closer look at what health 00:06:02.399 --> 00:06:05.439 insurance actually meant in 1940s Belgium. Right. 00:06:05.519 --> 00:06:08.310 It wasn't what we think of today. Exactly. Post 00:06:08.310 --> 00:06:11.709 -World War II, Belgium was politically and economically 00:06:11.709 --> 00:06:14.610 shattered. The modern state welfare system as 00:06:14.610 --> 00:06:17.250 we know it today was still in its infancy. In 00:06:17.250 --> 00:06:20.509 its place, you had these mutualities often organized 00:06:20.509 --> 00:06:23.430 along religious or political lines, filling the 00:06:23.430 --> 00:06:25.350 massive void. They were doing the heavy lifting. 00:06:25.720 --> 00:06:28.660 The Christian mutualities were essentially grassroots 00:06:28.660 --> 00:06:31.819 door -to -door religious safety nets. They weren't 00:06:31.819 --> 00:06:33.860 just modern bureaucracies processing hospital 00:06:33.860 --> 00:06:37.500 bills. So by managing this, he is dealing intimately 00:06:37.500 --> 00:06:39.819 with the everyday visceral struggles of working 00:06:39.819 --> 00:06:42.620 people. He is looking at their physical health, 00:06:42.699 --> 00:06:45.639 their financial ruin, if a breadwinner gets injured, 00:06:45.819 --> 00:06:48.639 their family stability. When you are the person 00:06:48.639 --> 00:06:51.100 administering the very system that keeps a working 00:06:51.100 --> 00:06:53.480 class family from starving during a medical crisis, 00:06:53.740 --> 00:06:56.000 you aren't just an abstract administrator. You 00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:57.980 become a pillar of the community. You're the 00:06:57.980 --> 00:07:00.899 guy they trust. In 1950s, Belgium health insurance 00:07:00.899 --> 00:07:03.259 was deeply tied to your religious and social 00:07:03.259 --> 00:07:05.959 identity. Organizing that system meant he knew 00:07:05.959 --> 00:07:07.939 the struggles of every neighborhood. He built 00:07:07.939 --> 00:07:10.180 an immense, unshadeable foundation of grassroots 00:07:10.180 --> 00:07:13.019 trust. Which translates into massive political 00:07:13.019 --> 00:07:16.379 capital. The timeline of his formal entry into 00:07:16.379 --> 00:07:19.199 politics moves incredibly fast based on that 00:07:19.199 --> 00:07:23.980 trust. In October 1952, Davos runs for the Muscran 00:07:23.980 --> 00:07:26.439 Municipal Council. As a candidate for the PSC? 00:07:26.600 --> 00:07:29.779 Right, the party social cretin or Christian social 00:07:29.779 --> 00:07:32.720 party, he wins his seat. Five years later, in 00:07:32.720 --> 00:07:35.819 1957, the PSC secures an overall majority on 00:07:35.819 --> 00:07:38.000 that council, elevating Davos to the position 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:40.579 of deputy mayor. And the momentum continues to 00:07:40.579 --> 00:07:43.160 build almost immediately. At the start of 1959, 00:07:43.500 --> 00:07:45.980 he takes the top job. He becomes the mayor of 00:07:45.980 --> 00:07:49.120 Moeskron. He succeeds Joseph Vandervelde, a politician 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:51.540 from the rival Belgian Socialist Party. That's 00:07:51.540 --> 00:07:54.300 a big shift for the town. It is. And just to 00:07:54.300 --> 00:07:56.519 underscore the sheer staying power, Davos had 00:07:56.519 --> 00:07:58.379 the record show he remains on that municipal 00:07:58.379 --> 00:08:02.069 council without a single break from 1952. all 00:08:02.069 --> 00:08:04.629 the way until 1981. That is nearly three decades 00:08:04.629 --> 00:08:07.410 of unbroken local influence in a highly volatile 00:08:07.410 --> 00:08:10.370 border town. Serving continuously for that long 00:08:10.370 --> 00:08:12.449 is a testament to the administrative competence 00:08:12.449 --> 00:08:16.089 he developed during his mutualities days. But 00:08:16.089 --> 00:08:19.029 his ambitions and his capabilities clearly extended 00:08:19.029 --> 00:08:22.149 beyond City Hall. Oh, definitely. Here's where 00:08:22.149 --> 00:08:24.790 it gets really interesting. Because while he 00:08:24.790 --> 00:08:27.149 is holding down the fort as mayor of Moose Cron, 00:08:27.269 --> 00:08:30.069 he makes the jump to the national stage. And 00:08:30.069 --> 00:08:32.710 the political mechanics of this are wild. In 00:08:32.710 --> 00:08:36.649 1958, his party, the Francophone -leaning PSC, 00:08:36.909 --> 00:08:40.600 is subsumed into the center -right. CVP, the 00:08:40.600 --> 00:08:42.919 Kristallnacht Volkspartei. And that same year, 00:08:42.940 --> 00:08:45.100 a general election is held. Yeah, DeVos runs 00:08:45.100 --> 00:08:47.620 as a CDP candidate for the Kortrijk Electoral 00:08:47.620 --> 00:08:49.799 District. Right. And he wins a seat in the national 00:08:49.799 --> 00:08:52.080 parliament. The sheer complexity of that 1958 00:08:52.080 --> 00:08:55.159 party merger cannot be overstated. You have a 00:08:55.159 --> 00:08:57.059 Francophone Catholic party essentially merging 00:08:57.059 --> 00:08:59.960 with a Flemish Catholic party at the exact historical 00:08:59.960 --> 00:09:02.460 moment when the country is beginning to tear 00:09:02.460 --> 00:09:04.840 itself apart over linguistic differences. And 00:09:04.840 --> 00:09:06.600 DeVos is caught right in the middle of this. 00:09:06.960 --> 00:09:10.320 He is a local francophone mayor now sitting in 00:09:10.320 --> 00:09:12.399 the national parliament for a party trying to 00:09:12.399 --> 00:09:15.000 hold together two increasingly hostile linguistic 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:18.200 wings. Furthermore, following boundary changes 00:09:18.200 --> 00:09:21.620 in 1965, his national constituency literally 00:09:21.620 --> 00:09:24.399 shifts under his feet and he begins representing 00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:27.019 the newly formed Dornick at Muscrane district. 00:09:27.399 --> 00:09:31.360 So he is navigating the intensely localized day 00:09:31.360 --> 00:09:34.500 -to -day issues of Muscrane, like trash collection 00:09:34.500 --> 00:09:37.500 and local zoning. simultaneously drafting federal 00:09:37.500 --> 00:09:39.580 legislation in the national parliament. It's 00:09:39.580 --> 00:09:42.399 an insane workload. It is. And within that parliament, 00:09:42.539 --> 00:09:44.639 his old health insurance administrative skills 00:09:44.639 --> 00:09:47.480 are put to the ultimate test. The sources highlight 00:09:47.480 --> 00:09:51.679 that between 1968 and 1971, he serves as a parliamentary 00:09:51.679 --> 00:09:54.559 quaestor. The title of quaestor has its roots 00:09:54.559 --> 00:09:56.899 in ancient Rome, but in the mid -century Belgian 00:09:56.899 --> 00:09:59.840 parliament, it represented a highly vital, grueling 00:09:59.840 --> 00:10:01.820 administrative function. What exactly does a 00:10:01.820 --> 00:10:04.299 quaestor do? A quaestor is the official responsible 00:10:04.299 --> 00:10:06.779 for the internal administration, the scheduling, 00:10:06.840 --> 00:10:08.639 the budget, and the organization of parliamentary 00:10:08.639 --> 00:10:11.080 business. You are the person making sure the 00:10:11.080 --> 00:10:13.340 legislative machinery actually functions. So 00:10:13.340 --> 00:10:15.100 keeping the lights on and the argument scheduled. 00:10:15.360 --> 00:10:18.460 Exactly. In a parliament as fractured as Belgium's 00:10:18.460 --> 00:10:21.639 was becoming, this required... someone who could 00:10:21.639 --> 00:10:24.759 spot patterns, anticipate bitter conflicts, and 00:10:24.759 --> 00:10:28.360 maintain order among hundreds of ambitious, ideologically 00:10:28.360 --> 00:10:31.340 opposed politicians. It's a role for a hardened 00:10:31.340 --> 00:10:34.100 pragmatist. He's the ultimate cat herder for 00:10:34.100 --> 00:10:36.519 the Belgian government. He's keeping the gears 00:10:36.519 --> 00:10:39.840 of democracy from grinding to a halt. But as 00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:42.440 if being a municipal mayor, a national member 00:10:42.440 --> 00:10:44.500 of parliament in a parliamentary quest wars, 00:10:44.740 --> 00:10:47.580 wasn't enough responsibility for one human being. 00:10:47.899 --> 00:10:50.379 The rules of the Belgian political game changed 00:10:50.379 --> 00:10:53.799 entirely in 1970. If we connect this to the bigger 00:10:53.799 --> 00:10:56.700 picture, the 1970 constitutional reforms in Belgium 00:10:56.700 --> 00:10:59.659 were a watershed moment. The country was desperately 00:10:59.659 --> 00:11:02.419 trying to manage its deep linguistic and cultural 00:11:02.419 --> 00:11:05.080 complexities without fracturing the nation state. 00:11:05.659 --> 00:11:07.960 So they began a massive process of state reform. 00:11:08.200 --> 00:11:10.679 Right. One of the primary creations of this reform 00:11:10.679 --> 00:11:12.720 was the Cultural Council for the French Cultural 00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:15.620 Community. This new body was handed specific 00:11:15.620 --> 00:11:18.080 sweeping powers over language arts and education 00:11:18.080 --> 00:11:20.899 in the primarily French -speaking parts of Belgium. 00:11:21.159 --> 00:11:23.240 Reading the mechanics of how this council was 00:11:23.240 --> 00:11:26.139 staffed broke my brain a little bit. This new 00:11:26.139 --> 00:11:28.679 cultural council wasn't separately elected. They 00:11:28.679 --> 00:11:31.470 didn't hold a new national vote for it. Instead, 00:11:31.590 --> 00:11:33.830 they relied on what was called a double mandate 00:11:33.830 --> 00:11:36.929 system. It's a brutal system. It really is. I 00:11:36.929 --> 00:11:38.409 want to try and translate this into a scenario 00:11:38.409 --> 00:11:41.269 for you, the listener. Imagine running for a 00:11:41.269 --> 00:11:43.960 seat in Congress and winning your district. But 00:11:43.960 --> 00:11:46.299 because of the specific geographic area you live 00:11:46.299 --> 00:11:48.379 in, the federal government says congratulations 00:11:48.379 --> 00:11:51.320 on winning your seat in Congress. By the way, 00:11:51.340 --> 00:11:53.960 you are now automatically drafted to serve on 00:11:53.960 --> 00:11:56.940 an entirely separate, immensely powerful cultural 00:11:56.940 --> 00:11:59.740 governing board at the exact same time. With 00:11:59.740 --> 00:12:02.279 no extra election. Right. There is no extra election. 00:12:02.440 --> 00:12:05.799 Just a massive pile of extra responsibility handed 00:12:05.799 --> 00:12:08.440 to you by default. The physical and mental toll 00:12:08.440 --> 00:12:11.980 of that system is staggering. Because devos represented 00:12:11.980 --> 00:12:14.759 an area heavily affected by these new linguistic 00:12:14.759 --> 00:12:17.700 definitions, he was automatically seated on this 00:12:17.700 --> 00:12:21.720 newly formed cultural council from 1971 all the 00:12:21.720 --> 00:12:24.100 way to 1981. And the bureaucracy only grew from 00:12:24.100 --> 00:12:26.870 there. It did. Later, when similar constitutional 00:12:26.870 --> 00:12:28.870 arrangements were made to create the Walloon 00:12:28.870 --> 00:12:31.889 Regional Council in 1980, he was required to 00:12:31.889 --> 00:12:34.049 sit on that as well for a year. So what does 00:12:34.049 --> 00:12:37.490 this all mean? It means Robert DeVos was juggling 00:12:37.490 --> 00:12:40.049 an almost unthinkable amount of political weight 00:12:40.049 --> 00:12:43.169 simultaneously. Let's tell you that. He is the 00:12:43.169 --> 00:12:45.610 mayor dealing with local Moose Cron citizens. 00:12:46.049 --> 00:12:48.350 Right. He's a national member of parliament debating 00:12:48.350 --> 00:12:51.690 federal economic policy. He is a questor managing 00:12:51.690 --> 00:12:54.440 the parliament's internal chaos. And he is a 00:12:54.440 --> 00:12:57.000 member of a cultural council defining the linguistic 00:12:57.000 --> 00:13:00.679 and artistic identity of an entire region. He 00:13:00.679 --> 00:13:03.940 is effectively doing four full -time, high -stakes 00:13:03.940 --> 00:13:06.419 political jobs at once. Constantly driving between 00:13:06.419 --> 00:13:09.000 local municipality meetings, regional councils. 00:13:09.470 --> 00:13:11.309 and the capital. All of which brings us to the 00:13:11.309 --> 00:13:14.629 core conflict of his entire career, because while 00:13:14.629 --> 00:13:17.149 he is juggling all of this, his beloved town 00:13:17.149 --> 00:13:19.570 of Muscron becomes ground zero for one of the 00:13:19.570 --> 00:13:21.990 most controversial linguistic border shifts in 00:13:21.990 --> 00:13:24.690 Belgian history. The demographic numbers in the 00:13:24.690 --> 00:13:27.429 source material really highlight the bizarre 00:13:27.429 --> 00:13:30.590 nature of this conflict. If you walked the streets 00:13:30.590 --> 00:13:32.350 of Muscron through the first half of the 20th 00:13:32.350 --> 00:13:34.730 century, you were mostly going to hear French. 00:13:35.240 --> 00:13:37.139 That was the dominant language on the street. 00:13:37.379 --> 00:13:40.580 The statistics show that French speakers outnumbered 00:13:40.580 --> 00:13:42.799 Flemish speakers by approximately three to one. 00:13:43.460 --> 00:13:46.779 But geographically and historically, Mouskron 00:13:46.779 --> 00:13:49.299 was located entirely within the Belgian province 00:13:49.299 --> 00:13:52.279 of West Flanders. And in West Flanders, Flemish 00:13:52.279 --> 00:13:54.740 was the overwhelming majority mother tongue. 00:13:55.080 --> 00:13:57.279 Understanding how a town gets a three to one 00:13:57.279 --> 00:13:59.960 francophone majority while sitting inside a Flemish 00:13:59.960 --> 00:14:02.779 province requires us to look back to the origins 00:14:02.779 --> 00:14:06.179 of Belgium in 1830. OK, let's go back. Historically, 00:14:06.220 --> 00:14:08.860 French was the language of the elite, the administration, 00:14:09.299 --> 00:14:11.279 the bourgeoisie and the upper class industrial 00:14:11.279 --> 00:14:14.159 owners, even within Flemish territories. It was 00:14:14.159 --> 00:14:17.269 the language of power. Exactly. Flemish was largely 00:14:17.269 --> 00:14:19.210 relegated to the working classes and the rural 00:14:19.210 --> 00:14:22.570 population. This created massive, deeply entrenched 00:14:22.570 --> 00:14:25.230 inequities of class, wealth and status between 00:14:25.230 --> 00:14:27.590 French speakers and Flemish speakers that lasted 00:14:27.590 --> 00:14:30.049 for over a century. So it wasn't just about what 00:14:30.049 --> 00:14:32.789 words you used. It was about your place in society. 00:14:33.070 --> 00:14:36.570 Yes. By 1962, the Belgian government decided 00:14:36.570 --> 00:14:40.090 to pass sweeping legislation to permanently fix 00:14:40.090 --> 00:14:42.289 these historical disparities. And the government's 00:14:42.289 --> 00:14:45.740 solution was to draw incredibly clear. unmoving 00:14:45.740 --> 00:14:49.759 lines on the map. The 1962 law established strict 00:14:49.759 --> 00:14:52.460 separate language areas for the country's linguistically 00:14:52.460 --> 00:14:55.460 defined communities. Impartially speaking, the 00:14:55.460 --> 00:14:57.759 goal was to give Flemish speakers equal footing 00:14:57.759 --> 00:15:00.679 in their own regions by defining every single 00:15:00.679 --> 00:15:03.480 province firmly as either Flemish -speaking or 00:15:03.480 --> 00:15:05.580 French -speaking. But the government knew there 00:15:05.580 --> 00:15:08.200 were highly complex areas that didn't fit neatly 00:15:08.200 --> 00:15:11.159 into this binary box. They did. Special arrangements 00:15:11.159 --> 00:15:13.399 and nuanced carve -outs were made for the German 00:15:13.399 --> 00:15:15.340 -speaking communities in the East to give them 00:15:15.340 --> 00:15:17.679 autonomy. They've also made highly specialized 00:15:17.679 --> 00:15:19.860 block -by -block arrangements for the Brussels 00:15:19.860 --> 00:15:22.500 region, acknowledging the incredibly complicated 00:15:22.500 --> 00:15:25.259 linguistic overlap in a massive capital city. 00:15:25.500 --> 00:15:27.600 Seeing those carve -outs in the source material 00:15:27.600 --> 00:15:29.820 immediately made me look for the Moosecrown exception. 00:15:30.220 --> 00:15:32.700 They've got a three -to -one francophone majority 00:15:32.700 --> 00:15:36.200 sitting right inside a Flemish province. They 00:15:36.200 --> 00:15:39.000 clearly need a nuanced carve -out, too. The problem 00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:42.159 Devos faced was that politics is rarely dictated 00:15:42.159 --> 00:15:45.990 by pure logic. It is dictated by leverage. And 00:15:45.990 --> 00:15:48.049 this is the dramatic climax of the Davos store. 00:15:48.429 --> 00:15:51.350 Little Musgran, despite its unique demographic 00:15:51.350 --> 00:15:54.710 reality and its rebellious history, simply lacked 00:15:54.710 --> 00:15:57.470 the political muscle that a massive global economic 00:15:57.470 --> 00:16:00.389 hub like Brussels had. It didn't have the strategic 00:16:00.389 --> 00:16:03.200 leverage of the eastern cantons either. So the 00:16:03.200 --> 00:16:05.059 national government, the very government Devo 00:16:05.059 --> 00:16:07.519 served in, didn't give Muscron a special arrangement. 00:16:07.700 --> 00:16:10.279 They opted for a blunt, bureaucratic, top -down 00:16:10.279 --> 00:16:13.139 solution. They simply ripped the entire municipality 00:16:13.139 --> 00:16:15.539 of Muscron out of the province of West Flanders, 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:17.279 crossed out the old borders, and transferred 00:16:17.279 --> 00:16:18.919 the town into the French -speaking province of 00:16:18.919 --> 00:16:22.000 Hainaut. This raises an important question. What 00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:24.259 happens to a community when a distant central 00:16:24.259 --> 00:16:27.559 government redraws the map, prioritizing clean 00:16:27.559 --> 00:16:30.179 linguistic boundaries over the historical roots 00:16:30.179 --> 00:16:32.940 and the messy lived in local identity of the 00:16:32.940 --> 00:16:35.159 people actually residing there? It's a devastating 00:16:35.159 --> 00:16:38.080 question for a town. Davos, sitting as the municipal 00:16:38.080 --> 00:16:40.360 mayor of Moskron, did not accept this quietly. 00:16:40.679 --> 00:16:42.980 He bitterly opposed the transfer of his town. 00:16:43.120 --> 00:16:45.600 And he wasn't acting as a lone rogue politician. 00:16:45.860 --> 00:16:49.100 He had the fierce vocal backing of a huge portion 00:16:49.100 --> 00:16:51.460 of his fellow citizens in Moskron. He fought 00:16:51.460 --> 00:16:53.539 tooth and nail to keep his French -speaking town 00:16:53.539 --> 00:16:56.259 within its historical Flemish province. He was 00:16:56.259 --> 00:16:58.500 prioritizing the deep historical roots of his 00:16:58.500 --> 00:17:01.379 community over a clean linguistic boundary drawn 00:17:01.379 --> 00:17:03.899 by bureaucrats in the capital. It was a massive 00:17:03.899 --> 00:17:06.019 fight pitting local on -the -ground identi - 00:17:06.029 --> 00:17:08.789 against sweeping national law. It really was 00:17:08.789 --> 00:17:11.029 the defining struggle of his career, a perfect 00:17:11.029 --> 00:17:13.650 encapsulation of his entire political life. But 00:17:13.650 --> 00:17:16.490 ultimately, the law passed the map, was redrawn, 00:17:16.690 --> 00:17:19.009 and Moskron officially became part of Hainat. 00:17:19.190 --> 00:17:22.750 But life and politics had to move forward. Davos 00:17:22.750 --> 00:17:25.029 stayed in his various roles, continuing to serve 00:17:25.029 --> 00:17:27.950 his newly relocated city and his fiercely divided 00:17:27.950 --> 00:17:31.029 country for nearly two more decades. But all 00:17:31.029 --> 00:17:33.769 eras eventually come to an end. In February 1981, 00:17:34.250 --> 00:17:37.009 DeVos fondly steps back. He resigns his various 00:17:37.009 --> 00:17:39.670 parliamentary mandates. He passes the baton to 00:17:39.670 --> 00:17:41.589 Jean -Pierre de Tremory, who had also just taken 00:17:41.589 --> 00:17:44.609 over as the new mayor of Mouscron. After decades 00:17:44.609 --> 00:17:47.170 of relentless public service, DeVos retires. 00:17:47.349 --> 00:17:51.869 He later passes away on September 3, 1996. Synthesizing 00:17:51.869 --> 00:17:54.490 all of this material reveals the true value of 00:17:54.490 --> 00:17:56.450 exploring Devo's life, doesn't it? It really 00:17:56.450 --> 00:17:58.950 does. This isn't just a dry biography of a mid 00:17:58.950 --> 00:18:01.890 -century Belgian politician. It is a masterclass 00:18:01.890 --> 00:18:04.710 in how individuals are forced to navigate massive, 00:18:04.789 --> 00:18:06.869 impersonal, bureaucratic, and constitutional 00:18:06.869 --> 00:18:09.130 shifts. Yeah, it shows us what it looks like 00:18:09.130 --> 00:18:11.269 to desperately try to protect the unique identity 00:18:11.269 --> 00:18:13.890 and history of a local community while the very 00:18:13.890 --> 00:18:15.750 ground under your feet is being redefined by 00:18:15.750 --> 00:18:18.009 the state. He had to be a hardened pragmatist, 00:18:18.049 --> 00:18:20.496 a national legislator, and a fiercely protective... 00:18:22.390 --> 00:18:25.609 He was a guy trying to keep his town's soul intact 00:18:25.609 --> 00:18:28.609 while the map was literally changing out from 00:18:28.609 --> 00:18:30.630 under them. And that leaves us with something 00:18:30.630 --> 00:18:32.890 really powerful to think about. It really does. 00:18:33.509 --> 00:18:36.230 Davos fought bitterly to prioritize his town's 00:18:36.230 --> 00:18:38.970 historical roots over the convenient linguistic 00:18:38.970 --> 00:18:42.829 boundaries drawn by distant politicians. It makes 00:18:42.829 --> 00:18:45.569 you wonder, especially today, in our incredibly 00:18:45.569 --> 00:18:48.450 fast -paced, globalized, and highly mobile world, 00:18:48.589 --> 00:18:51.430 what truly divines the identity of your community. 00:18:51.730 --> 00:18:54.470 Is it the language the majority speaks? Is it 00:18:54.470 --> 00:18:56.829 the invisible lines drawn on a map by people 00:18:56.829 --> 00:18:59.529 who don't even live there? Or is it the shared, 00:18:59.589 --> 00:19:01.430 messy, layered history of the people walking 00:19:01.430 --> 00:19:03.970 those streets right now? It's something to mull 00:19:03.970 --> 00:19:05.470 over the next time you walk through your own 00:19:05.470 --> 00:19:07.509 neighborhood. Thank you so much for joining us 00:19:07.509 --> 00:19:09.589 on this deep dive. Keep questioning the world 00:19:09.589 --> 00:19:11.250 around you, keep looking for the history hidden 00:19:11.250 --> 00:19:13.329 in plain sight, and we will see you next time.