Difficulties in banning neo-Nazis

12 March 2007

BRUSSELS – MPs Koen T’Sijen (Spirit) and Claude Marinower (Open VLD) are still working on a bill to make it possible to ban racist, xenophobic, and terrorist organisations. It does not seem all that easy to incorporate this into legislation however, T’Sijen said on Monday.

Minister for the Interior Patrick Dewael (Open VLD) called on Parliament some time ago to come with proposed legislation.

Marinower and T’Sijen now have a draft ready in which they outline how to address the matter. They will continue to work on the text this week. They will submit it in Parliament as soon as it is ready. The Spirit party MP did not want to pin down a date, but both MPs hope to have the bill ready before the Easter break.

T’Sijen believes there will be plenty of support for the bill. If it cannot be pushed through in time before the federal elections on 10 June he certainly wants to see it included in the negotiations on the government formation.

The Flemish left-wing liberal suspects that the proposal will be discussed in the justice committee. The text is based after all on the law regarding private militias. But banning organisations by law is easier said than done, because it affects the right of association, which is anchored in the constitution, T’Sijen pointed out.

Subject: Belgian news