The leader of the Flemish Socialist Party Conner Rousseau will be questioned by police on Thursday about racist comments he allegedly made to police officers in his home town of Sint-Niklaas (East Flanders).
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Flemish socialist leader to be questioned about allegations of racism on Thursday
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On September 21, the East Flanders Public Prosecutor's Office confirmed that comments made by Conner Rousseau to police officers in the early hours of 2 September were the subject of an investigation.
In an initial response to the opening of the investigation Mr Rousseau said "I went to a bar in Sint-Niklaas that evening and spoke to several police officers. I had drunk too much, but as I remember, the tenor of these conversations was quite pleasant and friendly".
The daily Het Laatste Nieuws and the commercial television channel VTM’s news programme got hold of extracts from the investigation into the Flemish socialist leader. Mr Rousseau got an injunction through a summary procedures blocking the publication of material from the investigation into the allegations made against him.
DPG Media, the company that owns both ‘Het Laatste Nieuws’ and VTM has taken legal action against the judgment. This will allow it to challenge the publication ban that several constitutional law experts have described as “unconstitutional”.