2023-12-01 18:04:10
With the question of wearing the veil (officially, modestly called the wearing of convictional signs, for a semblance of neutrality), you have the ingredients of a good political controversy. This never goes far, but success in the media and on social networks is guaranteed. So here is the collection Winter 2023 of this quarrel which goes round and round but which also provides rather significant lessons six months before the elections.
An old debate
The debate resurfaces regularly. Thus, in 2004, a Intercultural Dialogue Commissionchaired by the liberal Annemie Neyts and where many actors met.
Déjà, in its final report, this commission might not agree on the wearing of the veil in public services, even if there was unanimity in enshrining the neutrality of the State while noting that “this so-called headscarf question is not the most important nor the most urgent that arises in terms of interculturality in Belgium, and express the wish to assess the possible effects of the ban on religious symbols on the integration of women in the public employment market in particular.“
Twenty years later, we are still at the same stage, with the same questions, with the same observations or the same expectations. But undoubtedly, the political positioning has changed somewhat.
Elections in focus
In 20 years, the question has evolved. Today, for example, municipal administrations like Ghent or Mechelen, led by liberal mayors, authorize the wearing of the veil for staff who are not in contact with the public.
On the French-speaking side, the Socialist party continues to make more and more difference between its Walloon and Brussels wings. In the same week, a PS mayor from Wallonia (Ans) obtained a total ban on the wearing of the veil in his administration from the European Court of Justice while another PS mayor from Brussels (Anderlecht) adopted a motion supporting the wearing of the veil. veil ! A motion launched by Écolo, of which it is not sure that all the local sections, particularly in Wallonia, share the same analysis.
In 20 years, the vote commonly called “community” now involves all the Brussels parties. Even the MR recently noted its weak electoral presence among populations from immigrant backgrounds and took concrete steps in this direction. However, both in its strong support for Israel and in the wearing of the veil, the French-speaking liberal party remains on its “historic” line.
The motion voted in Anderlecht remains as vague as it is non-binding, but it allows everyone to position themselves.
The electoral context remains significant. And therefore, harmful to a nuanced and calm approach to these questions of society and living together.
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