Since decades, bilingual Brussels and its Flemish periphery constitute the scene of a persistentlanguage conflict between Dutch- and French-speaking politicians. In theseregions language is thus a highly sensitive topic from a political point of view. However,it is not clear whether the inhabitants themselves share the same sensitivity to languagematters. The primary interest of this research was therefore to analyse language sensitivityin Brussels and the Flemish periphery from the viewpoint of the Dutch-speakinginhabitants. On the basis of language attitude research, results showed that they are highlysensitive to language matters. At least half of the respondents was irritated by Francophonesin the public life of the Flemish periphery and about 65% voted against Frenchpolitical initiatives on Dutch-speaking territory.
