‘In bad taste’: Belgium asked to change name of Order of Leopold II

Three Belgian politicians will be decorated with the Order of Leopold II on June 30 this year, but Belgium’s Green parties consider it “indecent” that the order is named after the monarch who was responsible for many colonial cruelties in Congo.

This year, the Mayor of the Brussels municipality of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode Emir Kir, as well as former Belgian Ministers Eric Van Rompuy and Francis Delpérée are set to receive the Order of Leopold II, one of Belgium’s three great national orders.

The decoration was created in 1900 as a colonial, civilian order. It has been one of Belgium’s orders of knighthood since Congo’s independence in 1960 and is reserved for politicians, civil servants, academics, military personnel or other citizens with a solid record of service in their field.

However, the Flemish and Francophone Green parties, Groen and Ecolo, are now questioning the name as well as the existence of that Order. “The Order of Leopold II is a legacy of the colonial period,” said Federal MP for Groen Wouter De Vriendt, who is also the Chair of the Special Parliamentary Committee on the Colonial Past.

“There is nothing wrong with meritorious Belgians being given a symbolic title of honour, but it is in bad taste to award an honorary title in the name of a head of state who has led an atrocious regime,” he told De Morgen. “We want to discuss this in the Parliamentary Committee.”

Additionally, the date on which the Order of Leopold II is awarded this year, 30 June, is also extremely unfortunate, as it coincides with the date of Congo’s independence, stressed De Vriendt. “That is downright painful and an insult to the self-confidence of the Congolese nation.” The parties state that the Order no longer has a place in 2022, at least not under this name.

“It is violent that this order still exists,” Guillaume Defossé, Federal MP for Ecolo, told Le Soir, stressing that Leopold II’s Congo Free State was “the scene of a reign of terror involving military occupation, oppression, looting, forced labour, corporal punishment, racism and exploitation.”

“At the very least, a change of name for this title of honour is needed. It would be a small step, but it would have a great symbolic significance, as a sign of historical awareness,” he said, adding that the order could be renamed the ‘Order of Elisabeth.’

In June 2020, a statue of Leopold II was removed in Ghent © BELGA PHOTO JAMES ARTHUR GEKIERE