While the Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Open VLD) is calling for more respect and restraint in the political debate following the attack on his Slovakian counterpart Robert Fico, a presenter on a local station in West Flanders encouraged his listeners to "shoot down" Mr De Croo. Mr De Croo is pressing charges against the presenter that works for a local radio station in Waregem.
Local radio presenter encourages listeners to "gun down" Federal Prime Minister Alexender De Croo
Published:
A presenter on the local radio station Waregem 1 that broadcasts from the West Flemish town of Waregem is facing prosecution after he encouraged his listeners to shoot down the Belgian Prime Minister De Croo. The comments were made on the same day that the Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico was the target of an assassination attempt. Mr Fico is still in a serious but stable condition in hospital after he was shot on Wednesday.
The radio presenter later claimed that he had only said this as a joke. Mr De Croo is pressing charges and the station fired the presenter and has apologised.
In his Waregem 1 show on Wednesday the presenter said "To all those that have considered shooting Alexander De Croo but don't dare because the guy is guarded. You can see that it is possible to gun down a PM. So I say ‘go for it’”.
This did not go unnoticed and soon the comments were a hot topic on the social media platform X. The radio station responded on Thursday and apologised to its listeners. The presenter was suspended forthwith.
The Federal Prime Minister reported the incident and the police visited the radio station to question the presenter. The public prosecutor's office is now also investigating this case and also wants to question the radio presenter. However, the presenter has not been arrested.