In the city of Aalst in the province of East-Flanders, several people of foreign origin found a racist letter in their mail, telling them they were "no longer welcome in Europe."
The letters are personalised, as the addresses of the recipients are always stated at the top of the page. In the letter, a few streets in Aalst are mentioned where many Vlaams Belang voters would live, and it is also in these streets that the letters were received.
"Vlaams Belang is the first and biggest party in Aalst with 41,771 votes," the letter said. "It is clear that you are no longer welcome in Europe. Nobody wants you."
The text, which is full of errors, is unambiguously racist and xenophobic. “Many Belgians and Europeans have never liked your mentality. You are so behind and uncivilized rude cowardly dirty sneaky stupid you are half animals without no value whatsoever. And especially you are dirty freeloaders your children are so rude and marginal and without any upbringing. They cause so much nuisance that life is becoming unlivable with your marginal behaviour.”
One of the people that received a letter told Belgian newspaper De Morgen that he suspected who the perpetrator might be; a neighbour. “I was not really shocked by the letter, but it does give the feeling: we know who you are and where you live. That is pretty extreme," he said.
The centre for equal opportunities Unia said to De Morgen that it is investigating the matter. “We have a local employee in Aalst and we are grouping the number of reports. We are investigating if the letters are rather a result of a fight between neighbours that has degenerated into the euphoria of the election results, or rather something structural,” the centre said.
Maïthé Chini
The Brussels Times
