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Similar New Zealand's Top 100, De Grootste Nederlander, El Gen Argentino, Velikite Balgari, The Greatest American | ||
De Grootste Belg (The Greatest Belgian) was a 2005 vote conducted by Belgian public TV broadcaster Canvas, public radio broadcaster Radio 1, and newspaper De Standaard, to determine who is the Greatest Belgian of all time. It could be considered as a Flemish list, considering that Walloon broadcast RTBF also held a vote, Le plus grand Belge. Nominees needed to have lived between 50 BC and now, between the borders of present-day Belgium. This is because Belgium only gained its independence in 1830, while numerous historical individuals from, for example, the Spanish Netherlands, are considered to be "Belgians".
An initial list of 111 names (100 decided by a panel, 11 added by the public after a preliminary poll) was set online. People could vote for their favourites to reduce the longlist to a shortlist of ten. After the first television show, the final list of ten nominees was announced. Two of them, Ambiorix and Hendrik Conscience, came out of the 11 names chosen by the public instead of the 100 chosen by the panel. The ten finalists were each presented on Canvas with a documentary, their nomination defended by famous Flemish people.
On 1 December 2005, Pater Damiaan was announced as the winner of the "De Grootste Belg" poll, beating Paul Janssen and Eddy Merckx.