The European Parliament has opened an investigation against a Flemish nationalist MEP for ‘hate speech’ after he referred to EU asylum policy as a form of “organised replacement” at a plenary debate.
Tom Vandendriessche of Vlaams Belang, who has represented the Flemish separatists since 2019, made the comments at a Strasbourg debate marking the start of the Belgian presidency of the European Council on Wednesday.
In reference to the hotly debated EU Migration Pact, Vandendriessche declared that the purpose of the pact and most EU policy on the matter was to “attract more migration,” in response to comments made by Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson on the need for Europe to accept additional migrants from the Global South.
“She wants to bring an additional one million migrants to Europe, on top of the many millions we already have,” Vandendriessche went on to say in Dutch, saying that this is the very definition of replacement migration.
His remarks immediately provoked the ire of progressive MEPs with federalist Sophie in ‘t Veld, who objected to Vandendriessche’s use of the word “omvolking”—or repopulation—which she called “Nazi-like terminology.”
In ‘t Veld referred the matter to the Maltese President of the Parliament Roberta Metsola who announced that she would launch an investigation into Vandendriessche’s words and examine if they broke the Parliament’s rules of conduct.
Responding to a request for comment from The European Conservative, Vandendriessche reaffirmed he was only repeating the words of EU Commissioners back to the Parliament, adding that “this EU is increasingly becoming an EUSSR where the opposition is persecuted for telling the truth.”
Expected to perform handsomely in looming national and European elections, Vlaams Belang released an official statement referring to the investigation as a “direct attack on democracy” and calling the claim that Vandendriessche’s words had Neo-Nazi connotations absurd.
If found guilty by parliamentary authorities of using hate speech Vandendriessche could face a fine or even suspension of his voting rights under the Parliament’s Rule of Procedure.
Not for the first time, MEPs have been scrutinised for ‘hateful’ remarks. In May, three MEPs were investigated for their comments on Islam and migration. Separately, Polish MEP Janusz Korwin-Mikke was suspended for ten days and penalised €9,210 for his 2017 comments on the gender pay gap.
