There has been a fuss about an episode of the online television program Shooting stars, in which Flemish minister Ben Weyts (N-VA) bursts a balloon with the face of Kristof Calvo (Green) on it. Green party leader Björn Rzoska calls it ‘unworthy of a minister and politician’. Weyts himself puts the images into perspective.
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In the program Shooting stars, made by the duo behind the Youtube channel Supercontent, BVs are presented with a dilemma, after which they shoot balloons to reinforce their point of view. The program can be seen on the video platform GoPlay of Telenet subsidiary SBS.
In a fragment, the presenter asks Minister Weyts which competitor can drink the worst. The minister does not have to think long about this and bursts a balloon with Kristof Calvo’s face.
Death Threats
Several politicians reacted indignantly on Twitter. ‘Is this normal, Minister Ben Weyts?’ Green politician Björn Rzoska wonders. ‘At a time when virologists, journalists and politicians (including your chairman Bart De Wever) receive death threats. At that moment the Minister of Education (!) shoots without batting an eyelid at my Green colleague Kristof Calvo’, he adds. ‘The worst thing you can do in politics is take a gun and shoot at colleagues. Even if it was just for fun. For a disaster you only need one trigger and one person. Unworthy of a minister and politician.’
‘Disgusting. There’s nothing funny about this, certainly not in the current context,” said State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Sammy Mahdi (CD&V) on Twitter. ‘A violent political climate creates a violent social climate. Why Ben Weyts anyway?’
Minister Weyts puts the images into perspective. ‘It is quite likely that the makers of Shooting stars have a humorous point of view. By the way, the recording took place in unexpected times, during the Easter holidays,” he says in a response. ‘Of course there are always people who like to understand it very badly, but I’ll leave that up to them.’
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