N-VA and Vlaams Belang react furiously after the city of Bruges is launching video in Arabic: « unacceptable » (Bruges)

An AI-generated character who calls in Arabian young people to give their opinion about Sportpark Daverlo in Assebroek, with the feature of the accompanying text in English: several people from Bruges have been shown on Facebook in recent days. « The same goes for several of our members, via a sponsored advertisement from the city of Bruges, » says Maaike de Vreese, party leader of N-VA Brugge.

« It goes without saying that this puts evil blood. In our party, but also with many people of Bruges and Flemish people in general. And rightly so, because it is a clear violation of the Language Act. It prescribes that governments in Flanders always have to communicate in Dutch. Under the guise of a participation project, people are now trying to handle the language legislation and that is the Vreese.

Complaint

« With such Bepampering you do newcomers, many of whom invest a lot of time in Dutch learning, also not pleasure. And it also undermines support for those same newcomers. That is why Vlaanderen and Bruges rightly invest a lot of resources in integration. It is therefore not possible that the city now chooses to communicate in Arabic. »

Stefaan Sintobin (Vlaams Belang) is of the same opinion. « I will submit a complaint to the Language Supervision Committee for violation of the Language Act, » said the municipal councilor.

Mistake

Mayor Dirk De Fauw (CD&V) speaks of a mistake. « This video was developed on the initiative of the youth service, together with other films, in the context of Communicity. That is a European participation project in which many cities participate. When developing or selecting the films, something clearly went wrong, a human error or a programming error, because this was indeed not the intention. We can get this video.” ”” ”” ””