CAPITALS OF CULTURE

[EDIT: Liège, February 22]
The referendum, which was held on the option of Liège as a candidate for Europe’s cultural capital in 2015, was not successful because it did not achieve the quorum of 19,000 necessary to hold a valid vote.

This means that Mons (strongly supported by its former mayor and current SP leader Elio di Rupo) will be the candidate for 2015’s cultural capital. However, since both Aachen and Liège are supporting Maastricht’s candidacy for 2018, clearly this is a decision in which Liège will also play a role - not to forget Aachen's bid for the Garden Show.

It may well be that the Meuse-Rhine trio will be rather more representative of Europe’s culture than Liverpool - which has just stepped down and is a city whose cultural aspirations one might have been led to doubt – and Vilnius in Lithuania, which is apparently now graced by this status, though nobody appears to be able to get there.

SW