Flemish Environment Minister Zuhal Demir (N-VA) drew a barrage of criticism in the north of the country on Wednesday following drawing a parallel between welcoming refugees and raising pigs in Flanders.
In an interview with the magazine Knack, the Minister explains that the desire to build new reception centers for refugees puts the Region under tension, as it has very few free spaces.
Our available land and our rules are everywhere under pressure: whether it is for the reception of refugees, whether it is to cope with the growth of the population, or whether it is for breeding. It might be a weird comparison, but we can’t keep millions of pigs here either. I cannot create additional land like this. We cannot do everything in Flanders.
Zuhal Demir, Flemish Minister for the Environment
This evocation of refugees and pigs in the same reasoning aroused indignation in part of the Flemish political class.
“Repugnant“, reacted in particular the co-president of Groen, Jeremie Vaneeckhout. “Linking migration to the lack of spaces in Flanders is truly inexcusable and has never been demonstrated. Trying to hide the government’s inaction in the face of the concreteization of Flanders by using refugees is unheard of“, he commented.
The Marxist opposition also deemed these remarks “disgusting”. “(What Zuhal Demir does is) always pit people once morest each other, even when it comes to refugees sleeping outside in the cold. No wonder from Flemish nationalists. It’s a conscious strategy“, reacted for his part the leader of the PVDA group in the Flemish Parliament, Jos D’Haese.
CD&V president Sammy Mahdi also slammed the comments, calling them “rancid”. “Yes, we must react forcefully to the irregular influx of economic migrants. Yes, we must reserve our reception places for those who need protection. But should we compare them to pigs? It’s not weird, but rather rancid“, commented the former Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration.
