Van Bellingen invited to VB event

29 March 2007

BRUSSELS – Leader of the ultra-nationalist anti-immigration party Vlaams Belang Philip Dewinter has submitted a request to hold a VB event in Bazel (Kruibeke) on 1 May.

He has invited Wouter Van Bellingen, the black municipal official from Sint-Niklaas, who is a member of the left-wing Spirit party, to lay a wreath at the statue of his (Van Bellingen’s) own great-uncle Amedee Verbruggen.

Wouter Van Bellingen’s birth parents were Rwandan but he was adopted by a Flemish family shortly after birth. A part of his adoptive family, great-uncle Amedee Amedee Verbruggen (1886-1980), a soldier on the front in World War I, was called the “road-layer for the Flemish movement” because of his social engagement.

“My invitation to Van Bellingen is not intended as a provocation,” Dewinter says. “I am inviting him to join me in laying flowers at the monument to his great uncle.”

Van Bellingen was somewhat taken aback by the question of whether he would be accepting the invitation from Vlaams Belang, but said he will not be taking part in the even. “It would be disrespectful to my great uncle to use him politically this way.”

Subject: Belgian news