A comment by Member of the European Parliament Johan Van Overtveldt (N-VA) regarding the homosexuality of a VRT journalist, elicited a lot of reactions on social media on Tuesday evening. The new State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Sammy Mahdi (CD&V) even asks for an “explanation” from the former Belgian Minister of Finance.
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Johan Van Overtveldt spoke on Tuesday afternoon at a press conference of negotiators from the European Parliament for the next multi-year budget of the EU. As chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgets, the former Belgian minister welcomed the agreement reached on the same day with the Council’s negotiators.
After his speech, journalists who were connected to the press conference by videoconference were able to ask questions. The first to do so was the Flemish journalist Riadh Bahri for the VRT. While he appeared on screen, the live broadcast continued to focus on the image of Van Overtveldt and the other European Parliament negotiators, pending the question. Van Overtveldt corrected the spokesman who wanted to give the floor to “madame” Bahri and added in English: “He’s gay (he is gay)”. These words were meant for his fellow negotiators, but they were heard live by all European journalists who followed the press conference.
The scene with the comment was then taken over to Twitter. Some twitterers found the comment “hallucinatory”, others “inappropriate”. Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Sammy Mahdi has now tweeted that he “would like an explanation” about these words.
Van Overtveldt announced via Twitter on Tuesday evening that he called Riadh Bahri as soon as possible. “We’ve talked about it. Under no circumstances was it intended to hurt anyone. So I apologize ”, he responds in a tweet.
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