According to Belgian press, following a broken water pipe at Simonis station, a repair had to be performed at Brussels metro tunnel. And it seems it quickly turned into a Belgium-style language war.

STIB (Brussels Public Transport System) employees have been "concerned" because during a repair work in the Brussels metro tunnel, the warning sign for asbestos was in Dutch language, instead of French. The sign said "Asbestos" (the same in Dutch as in English) instead of the French word "amiante".

STIB employees claim that it endangered the health of the workers because they were mainly French speaking and some did neither speak Dutch nor French. STIB management replied by saying that the word `asbestos` is also used in French. Although it is not clear how this helped the workers who could not speak Dutch or French languages.

Belgian press reports that the French warning signs were added after a French language newspaper `Le Capitale` raised the red flag.

Frenchification

Language is a very sensitive subject in Belgium. The country has been ruled by French speaking people when the Belgium was a colonial power (and a very brutal one, especially in Africa, if you remember the Congo Genocide). French speaking Belgians, apart from Africa, also performed a `Frenchification` of whole Belgium, suppressing Dutch language and increasing the influence of the French language. Today the country is divided mainly by Dutch speaking Flanders in the North and the Wallonia in the south, apart from a tiny German speaking part in the east. The interesting thing with Brussels is that, it is a French speaking island in the Dutch speaking Flanders region, as `a bastion of Frenchification`, if you like.

https://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/80148/stib-staff-concerned-over-the-presence-of-asbestos-in-metro-tunnels/

image credits: Wikipedia