28 september 2020
10:09
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Flemish Parliament chairman Liesbeth Homans will take a corona test on Monday. As a result, Vlaams Belang figurehead Filip Dewinter will chair the opening session of the Flemish Parliament on Monday afternoon. But that also raises questions about corona due to the meeting of the Vlaams Belang on Sunday at the Heysel.
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Not Liesbeth Homans (N-VA) but Filip Dewinter (Vlaams Belang) will lead the opening session of the Flemish Parliament on Monday afternoon, at which Prime Minister Jan Jambon (N-VA) will make his September statement.
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Homans announced on Twitter on Monday morning that she must pass a corona test. She says that safety is paramount and that she cannot come to parliament.
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That is why it is up to Dewinter as the first vice-chairman to chair the opening session. If he is also unable to attend, the ranking continues via Joke Schauvliege (CD&V), Nadia Sminate (N-VA) and Bart Tommelein (Open VLD). However, Dewinter confirms to De Tijd that he will be there to lead the session.
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Black Lives Matter
However, the question is whether Dewinter should not be quarantined after the party meeting which Vlaams Belang organized at the Heysel on Sunday. ‘At the start of the session, we are going to ask that all members of parliament of the Vlaams Belang who were at the Heysel on Sunday leave the room and go into quarantine out of respect for the care staff,’ says Hannelore Goeman (sp.a). “That was also the appeal of Vlaams Belang party leader Chris Janssens after MPs from other parties took part in a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Brussels in June,” she says.
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At the beginning of the session, we are going to ask that all parliamentarians of the Vlaams Belang who were at the Heysel on Sunday leave the hall and go into quarantine out of respect for the care staff.
Hannelore Goeman
Group leader sp.a
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Groen shares that view. According to faction leader Björn Rzoska, it would be ‘unlawful and unacceptable’ if the Vlaams Belang members of parliament who attended the meeting on Sunday were in parliament on Monday.
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Sanitary cord
Vlaams Belang does not see the problem. ‘To be clear: it was a car caravan,’ says party leader Chris Janssens. ‘All those present mainly spent time in their car and those who left it wore a mouth mask. It should come as no surprise that the left for its own profit now also advocates a literal cordon sanitaire around the Vlaams Belang, but we are the second largest fraction of the Flemish Parliament and so it is only a democratic consequence that Filip Dewinter is first vice-chairman of parliament.
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Kris Van Dijck
In July 2019, Dewinter was already briefly chairman of the Flemish Parliament. Chairman Kris Van Dijck (N-VA) then resigned after a traffic accident in which he was under the influence. Dewinter was the first vice-chairman to do the honors. He was quickly succeeded by Wilfried Vandaele (N-VA), who was later succeeded by Homans.
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Prime Minister Jambon will present his government’s recovery plans to the Flemish Parliament on Monday. After difficult months, the government and the prime minister want one restart to make.
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