Dear Johan Van Overtveldt
Every politician of any significance deserves a nickname that sticks. Jean-Luc Dehaene was the Plumber, Bert Anciaux de Bleiter; Bart De Wever is the Calimero and Frank Vandenbroucke the Professor. Let’s call you the straight from now on. Whoever you pass in the European Parliament can now whisper quietly: “He’s straight.”
That’s how you did it last Tuesday, after a press conference about the European budget: whispering to your spokesman that my unsurpassed VRT colleague Riadh Bahri was not “Misses Bahri“But”Mister Bahri” is, to then add: “He’s gay.” After which Flanders fell collectively from so much tactless unworldliness. Agreed, you were not aware that the microphone would pick up your words and that could happen to anyone – sometimes I think Mia Doornaert is The appointment also not always aware that the microphone is picking up her words. But still, the first question I also asked myself was: why would you say such a thing at all? From what cloudy corner of your brain does such a comment suddenly appear, as if it were a messy potato nose popping out of an incorrectly attached mouth mask?
It seemed like you insisted on writing the Most Irrelevant Comment Ever Spoken By A Politician in your name. “I am a Berliner”, But the other way around. “It is mister Bahri, he’s gay.” “It is mister Bahri, he lives in Schaerbeek.” “It is mister Bahri, his cat is sick.” “It is mister Bahri, he likes to watch airplanes.I mean it was weird.
Salsify
At first I thought: in the brain of Mr. Van Overtveldt there is another corner that is decorated with oak furniture from the fifties, where there is still a toile cirée on the kitchen table and mother is polishing the woman in an apron all day long. . In that corner of his brain, the breadwinner first takes a detour every evening to visit his mistress, then at home eat a pork chop with salsify, and treat his wife and children to a tirade about the state of the world in general and the naturalization of the morals in particular. “With those politicians and those gays and all!”
Fortunately, I realized in time that I was threatening to stigmatize you too much for the sake of a perhaps perfectly harmless slip of the tongue. And I don’t want that on my conscience. It’s sad enough that I saw you in September 2011, when you were editor-in-chief of Knack was not even given the chance to show off your magazine-making skills, but quit my job almost immediately – and ran as if my life depended on it. And so I awoke the culture Christian in me and decided to look at the incident in a completely different way. With more empathy and understanding for your position. You made me think in a quick way, what can be called an achievement in this gloomy period.
Debate sheets
And so it happened that I am now convinced that you have – unconsciously and unintentionally – initiated an important change in our manners. We must not try hard to avoid comments such as yours, Mr Van Overtveldt, no, we must make a habit of them. Why should we hide our sexual orientation and other existential preferences from our fellow man? Why don’t we deal with it? Yes, also at political press conferences! “Good afternoon, I am Mr X, I am gay, atheist and vegetarian, and I once had a question about the European Commission budget.” Don’t take it personally, but politicians have to come across the bridge: “Good morning, I am a man who likes porridge from the females, I go jogging every day, I like to eat meat, and come here to read a debate sheet that the propaganda service of my party has cobbled together. ”
Wouldn’t that be convenient and a source of entertainment in these dull times? So let’s take it a step further, and strongly recommend – you can make it compulsory later – to make known his / her orientation and preferences by means of badges or other accessories. Straight men wear cowboy hats, gay men wear leather kepis, I’m just shouting something. In a next phase we can possibly also decorate our homes with symbols that make it clear to which sexual obedience we belong. This has advantages, just ask your nationalist brothers in Warsaw, who during their annual march flawlessly managed to detect an anti-popular apartment building by means of a rainbow flag – one of those flags that your party chairman does not want behind the counter.
Budgets
I understand, Mr Van Overtveldt, that you have apologized in the meantime, also by telephone to Mr Bahri himself. Was that really necessary? I am now trying to put myself in your brain just after that press conference. Maybe you thought: a gay guy like that, does he understand budgets? That seems to me to be worth an investigation by the N-VA study service!
Nostalgic greetings
Joël De Ceulaer, senior writer
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