municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
East Flanders
East Flanders ( ; ; ; ) is a Provinces of Belgium, province of Belgium. It borders (clockwise from the North) the Netherlands, Dutch province of Zeeland and the Belgian provinces of Antwerp (province), Antwerp, Flemish Brabant, Hainaut (provinc ...
. It is sometimes unofficially called Moerbeke-Waas () to distinguish between this place and in
Geraardsbergen
Geraardsbergen (; ) is a city and municipality located in the Denderstreek and in the Flemish Ardennes, the hilly southern part of the Belgian province of East Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Geraardsbergen proper and the follo ...
. The municipality comprises the town of Moerbeke proper, and part of the Dutch-Belgian village
Koewacht
Koewacht is a village on the border between the Netherlands and Belgium.
The village consists of two parts; a Dutch and a (smaller) Belgian part.
Overview
The Dutch part is located in Zeelandic Flanders, a part of the province of Zeeland and p ...
. In 2021, Moerbeke had a total population of 6,619. The total area is 37.80 km².
Moerbeke was known very well for its
sugar refinery
A sugar refinery is a refinery which processes raw sugar from cane or sugar extracted from beets into white refined sugar.
Cane sugar mills traditionally produce raw sugar, which is sugar that still contains molasses, giving it color ...
.
It is thought to have been the hometown of
William of Moerbeke
William of Moerbeke, Dominican Order, O.P. (; ; 1215–35 – 1286), was a prolific medieval translator of philosophical, medical, and scientific texts from Greek into Latin, enabled by the period of Latin Empire, Latin rule of the Byzanti ...
, who as Bishop of Corinth produced a new translation into Latin of the works of Aristotle, including certain which had been rediscovered from Arab sources, in the late 13th century.
Unique is the political situation: since 1847 the
liberal party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world.
The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...
has an absolute majority. The current mayor is
Robby De Caluwé
Robby De Caluwé (born 1 January 1975) is a Belgium, Belgian politician for Open Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten, Open Vld. He is mayor of Moerbeke-Waas since 2013 and member of the Belgian Federal Parliament since 2019.
Biography
De Caluwé st ...
. The previous mayor was
Filip Marin Filip () is a masculine given name and a surname, cognate to Philip.
The male name Filip comes from the Greek "philos" (love) and "hippos" (horse), which means "horse lover".
In Croatia, the name Filip was among the most common masculine given nam ...
.
The
aldermen
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking membe ...
are Pierre De Bock, Marc Fruytier, Thierry Walbrecht, Sarah Poppe and Rudy Van Megroot (all
Open Vld
The Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (, , Open Vld) is a Flemish liberal political party in Belgium. The party has been described as centre-right and has smaller factions within the party that have conservative liberal and social liberal ...
).
The members of the council are Frederic Dierinck, Inge Mertens, Koen Mertens and Jonas Vandamme for Open Vld, Steven Aper for
N-VA
The New Flemish Alliance ( ; N-VA) is a Flemish nationalist, conservative political party in Belgium. The party was established in 2001 by the right-leaning faction of the centrist-nationalist People's Union (VU).
The N-VA is a regionalist an ...
, Lut Vandevijver, Marnik Cooreman and Guido Van Hoecke for
CD&V
Christian Democratic and Flemish (, ; CD&V) is a Flemish Christian-democratic political party in Belgium. The party has historical ties to both trade unionism ( ACV) and trade associations ( UNIZO) and the Farmer's League. Until 2001, the party w ...
and Etienne Coppens and Chantal Francis for
SP.a
Vooruit (, Dutch for Forward) is a Flemish social democratic political party in Belgium. It was formerly known as the (Flemish) Socialist Party (1978–2001: ''Socialistische Partij'', SP; 2001–2021: ''Socialistische Partij Anders'' , , SP.A) ...
-
Groen
Groen or de Groen is a surname of Dutch people, Dutch origin, meaning ''green''.KFC Moerbeke, a sports hall, tennis club TC Moerbeke, and a scouting facility.
Gallery
File:Moerbeke, parochiekerk Sint Antonius Abt oeg34245 foto6 2013-05-06 12.31.jpg, Moerbeke, church: parochiekerk Sint Antonius Abt
File:Moerbeke, ophaalbrug over de Meervaart foto2 2013-05-06 12.22.jpg, Moerbeke, drawing bridge across de Moervaart
File:Koewacht-Moerbeke, de Sint Filippus en Sint Jacobuskerk oeg34290 positie2 foto1 2013-05-06 13.12.jpg, Koewacht-Moerbeke, church: de Sint Filippus en Sint Jacobuskerk