Anuna De Wever has been under fire since yesterday after a swipe at Gert Verhulst, following an interview with the Studio 100 boss in this newspaper. The climate activist has now responded to the fuss on Twitter. “We all say things out of frustration and anger sometimes.”
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De Wever called Verhulst “an old white straight man” on Sunday who completely minimizes the climate crisis and gives an opinion about something he has absolutely no knowledge about”. With this she responded to an interview in which Verhulst spoke against her. He accused her of having “plucked” Green in the previous elections and that her climate marches were “a poisoned gift” for the party.
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De Wever’s statement came as a surprise to many, including State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Sammy Mahdi (CD&V). “Intolerance comes in many guises. Can we stop limiting a person’s opinion to age, skin color, orientation and gender? Is that so hard?” he tweeted.
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Open Vld chairman Egbert Lachaert also got involved in the debate. Tip (even if he comes (from, ed.) a white straight man, deep apologies for that): focus on the substantive debate. Personal attacks do not improve the climate.”
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‘Bad message’
Now De Wever himself is responding to the fuss, “not to stir up the debate, but to put it to rest.” On Twitter she admits that her swipe at Verhulst could be more nuanced. “I was angry. For the umpteenth time I had to take something without an answer, and ‘don’t let it get to my heart’. As a result, I tweeted an oversimplified message on a topic much bigger than a Twitter debate. Do I think this topic is relevant? Yes. But that was the wrong way and time to put it on.”
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“This is of course much more general and larger than a response to one article,” continues De Wever. “This is about privilege and responsibility and it’s a hugely important topic that isn’t talked about enough. But that debate shouldn’t be about someone, on Twitter. A lesson for me. We all say things out of frustration and anger. I admire those who are free of that. And as a result, it started a very different, oversimplified debate about something I wasn’t referring to at all.”
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Anuna De Wever Van Der Heyden
@AnunaDe
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