Ecolo Co-President Rajae Maouane has confirmed that she will consult with a lawyer about taking potential legal action after receiving a torrent of racist abuse and death threats over the weekend.
The abuse was triggered after Maouane, who is of Moroccan origin, tweeted her support for the Moroccan football team after its 1-0 victory over Portugal on Saturday, thereby becoming the first African team to reach the semi-final of a World Cup.
"Morocco is in the process of writing history," she tweeted. "What pride for the African continent. What pride for all Moroccans around the world."
The tweet led to a barrage of online abuse. According to BX1 and La Dernière Heure, such messages — many of which have since been deleted by Twitter — include: "Shut your old mouth, which you use to swallow everything that moves. Why don't you die?"; "Don't you want to go back [to Morocco]?"; and "Don't piss us off and go back there then huh asshole, go educate your people."
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"Racism is not an opinion, but a crime," Maouane said.
"Many of these messages could be the subject of a criminal complaint and I am not ruling out this possibility. It's not normal to be able to make racist remarks in such an uninhibited way. We'll see how to take this to the level of the courts. Sexist and racist messages are punishable by law."
