Will Middelkerke be given the title of city?

It has been since 2000 since another city was added, when Waregem became a city. West Flanders currently has 22 cities, so Middelkerke would be number 23.

Middelkerke has about 20,000 inhabitants. The idea to become a city arose last week, when Flemish minister Lydia Peeters came to give the first sod of the new casino. Her Dilsen-Stokkem was also a Limburg municipality until 1985, but since then a city. Jean-Marie Dedecker: “We are surrounded by cities: Ostend, Gistel, Diksmuide and Nieuwpoort. We cannot stay behind. And it has nothing to do with municipal mergers. Absolutely not, because we are also the second largest municipality in West Flanders in surface, after Diksmuide.”

Dedecker also refers to the district of Lombardsijde, which received city rights in the Middle Ages from the Countess of Flanders, Margaret of Constantinople. Two city stamps are still proof of this. “We will officially submit the application to the Minister of the Interior of the Flemish government. We are entitled to it.”