Halluin (; nl, Halewijn) is a commune in the Nord department in northern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

Geography

It is located at the north of the

Métropole Européenne de Lille The Métropole Européenne de Lille (MEL; en, "European Metropolis of Lille") is the '' métropole'', an intercommunal structure, composed by a network of big cities ( Lille, Roubaix, Tourcoing, Villeneuve d'Ascq, Armentières etc.) whose maj ...

, on the Belgian border, contiguous with the Belgian town of

Menen Menen (; french: Menin ; vls, Mêenn or ) is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Menen proper and the towns of Lauwe and Rekkem. The city is situated on the French/ ...

Population

Transport

The Halluin railway station, closed in the 1970s, was situated on the Somain-Halluin Railway. The town is now served by buses of Ilévia. The A22 autoroute links the town to Lille and Belgium.

Heraldry

Politics

An erstwhile bastion of the left, Halluin owes its nickname ''Halluin the Red'' to the powerful trade unions who used their influence to support

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

mayors during the interwar period. However, since the 1990s Halluin has become gentrified (see also below), and in the 2007 and 2012 presidential elections the town backed

Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012. Born in Paris, he is of Hungarian, Greek Jewish, and French origin. Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Sei ...

. In the 2014 mayoral elections, 62% of voters chose right-wing parties: Gustave Dassonville ( UMP) received 40% of the votes and JeanChristophe Destailleur (

Centre-right Centre-right politics lean to the right of the political spectrum, but are closer to the centre. From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure and the economy, moving away from the nobility and m ...

) received 22% of the votes. Left-wing parties, with 38% of the votes, were defeated, and Gustave Dassonville was elected. Six years later, in 2020, JeanChristophe Destailleur (

) was elected mayor of Halluin. Despite the noted gentrification of Halluin, the neighbouring town of

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

, situated within walking distance of central Halluin, underwent a simultaneous radicalization, given the municipality's attempts to ban its employees from speaking French to Francophone people whose command of Dutch may be limited, and to use

sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...

instead. While some townsfolk of Halluin's adjoining conurbation may have regarded this as a brave attempt to enforce Flemish supremacy over Francophone neighbours, others, including Francophone neighbours themselves, and international observers may have regarded such a measure as allegedly fanatical and insensitive to the needs of Francophone neighbours with limited command of Dutch. International press comment was provoked by these municipal regulations.

Points of interest

* Parc Arboretum du Manoir aux Loups

Twin towns

Halluin is twinned with: *

Oer-Erkenschwick Oer-Erkenschwick is a town in the district of Recklinghausen, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated approximately 5 km north-east of Recklinghausen, on the northern periphery of the ''Ruhrgebiet''. When pronouncing the name, “O ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

- since 1969 *

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- since 1994 * Pniewy,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

- since 1998 *

Lübbenau Lübbenau (, dsb, Lubnjow ; officially Lübbenau/Spreewald, L.S. Lubnjow/Błota (meaning ''Lübbenau/Spree Forest'')) is a town in the Upper Spree Forest-Lusatia District of Brandenburg, Germany. It is located in the bilingual German/ Sorbian r ...

- since 2000 *

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Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...