2024-01-08 15:26:00
The commune of Etterbeek has cast a chill over the organizations associated with the PTB. Recently, it sent 234 administrative sanction files for posting in public spaces and 334 municipal taxes for cleaning public domains to the Redfox association, the PTB youth movement. Other organizations associated with the PTB (Zelle, Comac, Manifiesta, etc.) were also fined, as was the party.
In total, the municipality of Etterbeek is demanding 107,000 euros in administrative sanctions and 52,000 in taxes for the cleaning. In question, the installation of stickers on street furniture and in public spaces in Etterbeek. For Alice Verlinden, the president of the association which organizes camps and events for some 6,000 secondary school students, this request is simply absurd: “We are talking regarding 40,000 euros for us. How can an association be held responsible for street posting? This cannot be blamed on us. The stickers come from us, but the display comes from third parties.”
The municipality ensures that the association which provides the display material may be required to give the identity of those who distribute this material, otherwise the responsibility for the display remains on the shoulders of the association. Etterbeek therefore considers that Redfox must provide proof that it is not responsible for the display.
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“A serious precedent”
For Redfox, this approach is particularly dangerous. “If all the municipalities do this, it will cost millions of euros. And all associations, whether attached to parties or not, will be targeted. We see Ecolo Groen stickers everywhere. We can also think of all the sports clubs. For us, 40,000 euros might call our existence into question. If we have to pay, we will do everything to survive but imagine what else we might do for young people with 40,000 euros. This is unheard of and would be a serious precedent.”
The youth movement also accuses Etterbeek of harming freedom of expression since with this type of procedure, “no organization will no longer dare to disseminate its ideas via stickers.” Also in terms of form, the association contests the procedure. “It’s addressed to Redfox, without further details, without our identification number. So technically it’s not addressed to anyone.”
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Several members, including the president, went to the municipality this Monday morning to contest the fines for displaying and the taxes linked to the costs of removing stickers. The appeal file is therefore launched.
The mayor of Etterbeek Vincent De Wolf (MR) clarifies the approach. “This is in no way an anti-PTB operation. It should be noted that between June and July 2023 there were 1075 reports of identifiable PTB or affiliated stickers noted in the municipality. This is, in our opinion, the result of an organized and voluntary campaign. But beyond that, according to the cleaning tax regulations, the tax is to be paid in solidarity with the owner of the waste (who is identifiable) and the person who left it there. If the PTB believes it has nothing to do with it, it can turn once morest its activists who stuck with them. But, unless their stock of stickers was stolen, they are the publishers responsible.”
”If I stuck posters with my face everywhere, I would be punished too. There is no distinction. Here, since there was a collage campaign, the file is very long but, in all cases, as soon as we find a tag or sticker whose author is identifiable, it happens in the same way : administrative sanction and cleaning tax. I can’t begin to let this happen. I guarantee cleanliness. This is a lack of respect for our workers. We had to mobilize two people full time for two months for the removal. I don’t understand how a party, therefore financed by public money, uses public money for this.”
On the Redfox side, lawyers remain optimistic in the appeal procedure. The PTB and other organizations also contested the Etterbeek procedure.
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