Belgium has grown a little bit larger after a farmer accidentally shifted the country’s border by 2.29 metres.
According to BBC News, a local history enthusiast was walking in the forest near the border when he noticed the stone marking the border between France and Belgium had moved.
Apparently, the Belgian farmer moved the stone into French territory after he became annoyed because it was blocking his tractor’s path.
“He made Belgium bigger and France smaller, it’s not a good idea,” David Lavaux, Mayor of the Belgian village of Erquelinnes, told local media, pointing out that the move would have repercussions for the neighbouring states.
“We should be able to avoid a new border war,” the Mayor of the neighbouring French village, Aurélie Welonek, said.
The stone had been in place since 1819 when the border was first marked out. It was established under the Treaty of Kortrijk in 1820 following Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo five years earlier.
Welonek told Belgian news website Sudinfo that Belgian authorities had asked the farmer to return the stone to its original location, or else the Belgian foreign ministry would have to summon a Franco-Belgian border commission for the first time since 1930.
Featured image source: BBC News/David Lavaux
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