Adressed to: mohamed.ridouani@leuven.be, liesbeth.vandermeeren@leuven.be, info@leuven.be,visit@leuven.be, bert.cornillie@leuven.be, leuvensverzet@proton.me
Dear Madam, Sir,
I’m reaching out to you to urge you to withdraw the permit of NSV for a parade in Leuven on March 26th. This organization has a long history of being in grave violation of Stad Leuven’s code of conduct (in particular those regarding hate speech, discrimination, and racism) and therefore should not be allowed to proceed with their planned parade.
Leading up to this parade, NSV have been violating the city of Leuven’s code of conduct by prepetuating and broadcasting the racist and xenophobic message of ‘remigration’ which is exactly the language the German Nazi party was using in the 1930s to advocate for the ‘remigration of Jewish people’. This is blatant hate speech and discriminating speech against people of immigrant background and should constitute a grave violation of the city code and result in the permit being revoked. If this is not enough, in the past years, NSV have been using their platform to host events where invited speakers practiced hate speech, discriminating and racist speech.
One example is the event of February 2024 at KU Leuven where Dries Van Langenhove was an invited speaker and where he spoke racist and sexist speech such as ‘Black men are more likely to end up in prison’ and ‘inequality was natural given the biological differences between the genders and races’. It is worth noting that this event constituted in the ban on NSV from the use of KU Leuven infrastructure as it violated their code of conduct. Another example is the 2023 event where Martin Sellner was an invited speaker and where NSV! members were seen and photographed performing white supremacist gestures next to him. The KU Leuven was heavily critized for these events as reactive and for allowing hate speech to take place in the first place knowing full well the track record of the invited speakers and the NSV!.
Leuven prides itself for its international, diverse community. Our trash bags have the slogan ‘Le(u)ven Samen’ on them. As citizens of Leuven, we pride ourselves with our city’s inclusivity and openness. How then can we allow these violators of hate speech and discrimination organize a hateful ‘Remigration’ event in our city. This is an opportunity for Stad Leuven to set an example and act on the values it stands for. It is an opportunity for choosing inclusion, unity, and solidarity, over hate and discrimination.
I therefore urge you, as a concerned citizen of Leuven, to withdraw the permit of NSV!.
Sincerely,
Concerned citizen of Leuven