A film in Arabic has caused a political storm in the West Flemish city of Brussels. The film was one of a series of films in which young people were asked to give their opinion about the municipal sport park in Assebroek. The Flemish nationalists (N-VA) and the far-right Vlaams Belang say that it is unacceptable that a public authority used another language than Dutch to communicate with the general public.
Commotion over Arabic-language film on City of Bruges Youth Services Department’s socials
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The film was published in a sponsored post on Facebook. It features an animated figure of a girl wearing a headscarf. The girl speaks Arabic and the tekst accompying the post is in English. The fact that there is no Dutch translation is seen as an afront by N-VA and Vlaams Belang.
The mayor of Bruges Dirk De fauw (Christian democrat) says that he understands the reaction, but the film was simply an error of judgement. "The film was made as part of a subsidised European-wide project called Community City Project. Its aim is to reach out to young people of foreign descent”.
Legislation overlooked
"Together with the group of young people working on the project, it was decided that a video that addresses young people in their mother tongue would be useful. The video was posted on the city's Facebook page, with the knowledge of our Communication Department. However, by doing so, they overlooked language legislation."
"In principle, we are allowed to publish a film like this provided that it is targeted at a specific audience. For example, exclusively to people who speak Arabic. However, in this case the film was made available to a very wide audience. A message in a foreign language is allowed, but only in combination with a Dutch-language text and that was the mistake that was made here."
Vlaams Belang files complaint
Stefaan Sintobin of the far-right party Vlaams Belang has announced that his party will file a complaint against the film with the Permanent Commission for Language Supervision, a body that is charged with ensuring that Belgium’s language laws are observed. In the meantime, the City of Bruges’ Youth Service Department has taken the film offline.