A farmer in Belgium has created a tumult after accidentally redrawing the country’s boundary with France. A regional history enthusiast was walking in the forest when he regarded the stone indicating the border between the two nations had moved 2.29m (7.5ft). The Belgian farmer, obviously irritated by the stone in his tractor’s way, had repositioned it inside French territory.
Rather of creating a global turmoil, the event has been reached with smiles on both sides of the boundary.”He created Belgium bigger and France smaller, it’s not a good concept,” David Lavaux, mayor of the Belgian village of Erquelinnes, told. That kind of movement made a mess between private landowners, he pointed out, let only adjoining states. The boundary between France and what is presently Belgium extends 620km (390 miles). It was officially placed under the Treaty of Kortrijk, signed in 1820 after Napoleon’s downfall at Waterloo five years earlier.
The stone records back to 1819 when the boundary was first pointed out.”I was happy, my town was bigger,” the Belgian mayor replied with a laugh. “But the mayor of Bousignies-Sur-Roc didn’t agree. We should be able to dodge a new border war,” the amused mayor of the neighboring French village, Aurélie Welonek, told La Voix du Nord.
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Local Belgian authorities intend to reach the farmer to urge him to replace the stone to its original position. If that does not occur the case could end up at the Belgian foreign ministry, which would have to ask a Franco-Belgian border commission, dormant since 1930. Mr. Lavaux noted that the farmer could also face criminal charges if he failed to comply.” If he exhibits goodwill, he won’t have a difficulty, we will resolve this issue amicably,” he told Belgian news website Sudinfo.
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