France-Belgium border accidentally moved by farmer, reviving old feud

A farmer has inadvertently revived a 200-year-old international dispute after he moved a rock to clear a path for his tractor.

The stone has marked the border of Belgium and France since the Battle of Waterloo. Picture: David Lavaux

A Belgian farmer has embroiled two countries in a dispute over international borders after he accidentally annexed part of France.

Parties in Paris and Brussels were baffled after it appeared that Belgium had grown, and France had shrunk.

The incident was first reported by a local historian on a morning walk through the forest near Erquelinnes, when he noticed the boundary stone among the trees.

The Belgian border had moved 2.3m into France.

It turned out a farmer in neighbouring Belgium, annoyed by the old stone, had moved it from the path of his tractor and back into France.

But this was no small matter.

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The stone has marked the border of Belgium and France since 1819. Picture: David Lavaux

“He made Belgium bigger and France smaller,” David Lavaux, the mayor of border town Erquelinnes, told French TV. “It’s not a good idea.”

The Belgian border has been unchanged since Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo, a low point for relations between the two countries. The boundary stone itself dates back to 1819, where it had stood undisturbed for two centuries.

Until this week.

Fortunately the dispute was met with laughter, rather than a new Napoleonic war.

“I was happy, my town was bigger,” the Belgian mayor Lavaux said with a grin.

“We should be able to avoid a new border war,” his French counterpart, mayor Aurélie Welonek of Bousignies-sur-Roc, quoted by La Voix du Nord.

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As for the farmer, he is unlikely to face any repercussions.

Local authorities have contacted him to return the stone. However any case regarding the border would end up at the Franco-Belgian border commission, which the BBC reports has been dormant since 1930.

While the moving of the stone marker may not have resulted in any serious repercussions, it comes at a time when France and Belgium are re-examining the legacy of the last French Emperor.

The legacy of Napoleon

On the 200th anniversary of his death in exile on the island of St Helena, the legacy of the short military man has only grown.

Apart from the Belgian border, his other lasting contributions include tinned food and the metric system.

Yet most recent French presidents have gone to great lengths to avoid praising Bonaparte.

In 2005, the French President, PM and then-interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy both snubbed the 200th anniversary of Napoleon’s coronation.

French statesman and military leader Napoleon Bonaparte, who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars.

More recently, the deputy mayor of Montauban Philippe Bécade has come under fire for suggesting that actions of the French tyrant who plunged Europe into 15 years of war and reinstated slavery, be judged with “context”.

“If you take just one element, it’s very easy to condemn anyone,” Mr Bécade told the BBC. “Today we’re in a dictatorship of the politically correct, and I’m among those who want to fight it.”

On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron laid a wreath at Napoleon’s Tomb, at Les Invalides in Paris.

French President Emmanuel Macron stands in front of the tomb of French Emperor Napoleon in the Chapelle Saint-Jerome at the Invalides on May 5, 2021. Picture: Sarah Meyssonnier/AFP

In a speech on the legacy of Napoleon, Mr Macron told the nation that Napoleon’s support for slavery and other foibles was “a fault, a betrayal of the spirit of the Enlightenment”.

He said that the Little Corporal was lasting because he was a complicated figure, “both the soul of the world and the devil of Europe”.

“We love Napoleon because his life gives us a taste of what is possible if we accept the invitation to take risks.

“We take responsibility for all,” he said.

This article originally appeared on the New Zealand Herald and was reproduced with permission