The Secretary of State responsible for equal opportunities Sarah Schlitz (Francophone green) has resigned. Ms Schlitz announced her resignation on the Francophone public broadcaster RTBF’s morning radio news and current affairs programme ‘Matin Première’. Ms Schlitz has been under fire during the past week after it emerged that she had used her personal logo in official government communiques.
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Federal Secretary of State resigns after row about misuse of her personal logo
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The biggest opposition party in the Federal Parliament, the Flemish nationalist N-VA says that Ms Schiltz lied about this to Parliament. Support for the Francophone green politician amoung members of the other parties that make up the federal coalition government has crumbled in recent days.
Ms Schlitz told ‘Matin Première’ that "I have offered my resignation to the Prime Minister. I made a mistake and I want to apologise for that. The issue has become so great that my position has become untanable”.
Under fire all week
Ms Schlitz first came under fire last Tuesday when she was reprimanded by the Election Expenditure Control Committee. She was rebuked for having allowed used her personal logo to appear at the Kazerne Dossin site in Mechelen (Antwerp Province) where a project had received financial backing from her department. It is strictly forbidden for a politician to use public money in this way.
Ms Schlitz apologised and spoke of a "clumsy oversight". She stressed that she had not asked for her logo to be used. However, documents released the next day showed that organisers of the event at Kazerne Dossin were indeed asked to display the logo.
The Flemish nationalist MP Sander Loones, who also submitted the original complaint about Ms Schlitz to the committee, said that Ms Schlitz had lied to parliament and demanded her resignation.
Little support from other coalition parties
It immediately became clear that Ms Schlitz did not enjoy unconditional support from the other parties in the federal coalition. Standard practice is for coalition parties to neutralise opposition demands for a Minister or Secretary of State to resign by tabling a motion with urgency supporting the person that is under fire. However, the Francophone liberals and the Flemish and Francophone socialists refused to do this.
Last Sunday in VRT News’ topical discussion programme ‘De zevende dag’ the leader of the Flemish socialists Conner Rousseau openly questioned whether Ms Schlitz could “still function credibly”.
Since then, more examples have emerged of Ms Schlitz's personal logo having been used where it shouldn’t have been. To make matters worse, a member of her staff shared a message on social media that accused the Flemish nationalist party N-VA of having links to Nazism. The Federal Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Flemish liberal) intervened and forced Ms Schlitz to apologise.
The beleaguered now former Secretary of State was due to be grilled by MPs again today about the (mis)use of her logo. However, she has decided to call it a day, announcing her resignation live on the radio on Wednesday morning.