Ethics probe into Aalter mayor for discrimination against foreign-born residents

Flemish interior minister Hilde Crevits (CD&V) has opened a disciplinary investigation into party colleague Pieter De Crem for discriminatory – and potentially illegal – policies with regards to a refusal to register the address of foreign-born residents.

The story broke last spring when VRT investigative program Pano revealed that registering as a new resident in Aalter was made extremely difficult for foreigners, or foreign-born Belgians. De Crem, mayor of the city in East Flanders, had instructed civil servants to not register the address of newcomers with foreign-sounding surnames until their residence underwent a housing code inspection.

Residents had to wait months – and in some cases more than a year – to get the inspection. In the meantime, they had no legal address, which caused endless administrative headaches. Residents told Pano that they had problems with registering their children in school, with opening bank accounts and with searching for a job.

Residents with Flemish surnames could register their new address in Aalter immediately without needing inspections. De Crem insisted that the housing inspections were done to tackle slumlords, but the figures show that of the 77 housing inspections carried in 2024, not a single home was declared unfit for occupancy.

Today, Audit Vlaanderen released the findings of its official investigation into the allegations. “This arbitrary policy was observed almost exclusively among non-Belgians,” said Audit Vlaanderen in a statement. “The non-Belgian partner in mixed couples were also sometimes treated differently than their Belgian partner. Audit Vlaanderen finds that this stricter registration policy was not adequate, legal, effective or efficient and resulted in a situation where equal treatment of citizens was not respected.”