The Communist PVDA is demanding an apology from Flemish nationalist leader Bart De Wever (N-VA) after the Antwerp mayor told TV viewing Flanders that the PVDA programme said that the party supported the Taliban in Afghanistan. Mr De Wever based his claim on a 2008 congressional text, which is said to portray ‘the resistance in Afghanistan’ in a positive light. According to PVDA general secretary Peter Mertens, ‘support for the Taliban’ was never in the PVDA programme. ‘We shudder at the thought of the Taliban,’ the federal lawmaker says.
Last night on TV Mr De Wever was asked to give an example of an extreme position adopted by PVDA. The Antwerp mayor is lead candidate for the Flemish nationalist N-VA in the port city. Polls show that his biggest challenger is the PVDA’s Jos D'Haese.
‘In their programme, for example, there is still support for the Taliban,’ Mr De Wever said of the PVDA. ‘They think the Taliban fight against America is very important because then Venezuela and Cuba are less under pressure from the United States. There are still things in their programme that make you wonder: which lunatic wrote that?’
In a reaction, the PVDA speaks of ‘lies’. ‘We shudder at the thought of the Taliban,’ says PVDA lawmaker Peter Mertens.
The word ‘Taliban’ does not appear in the PVDA programme for Antwerp, or in the PVDA programmes for the June elections. Asked for clarification, Bart De Wever's spokesperson indicated that the N-VA leader had relied on a passage in a report on a PVDA conference in 2008, when Mr Mertens was appointed party leader.