Willebroek (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Chaos erupts in Willebroek council as Chairman Eddy Mons calls police to remove Karim Hassoun after a heated debate. Mons later admits to misinterpreting rules and apologises.
A council member in Belgium was kicked out of a meeting. He wanted to talk about racist comments made by another council member. The chairman didn’t let him. The council member wanted the conversation to be public, not private. The chairman disagreed. The council member kept trying to talk, so the chairman called the police.
According to officials, this happened because the council member had made controversial statements in the past. He had made remarks about Hamas and accused some politicians of wrongdoing. The chairman’s party didn’t want to work with him.
“May I ask the police to throw Mr Hassoun out, he is disturbing the public order”,
Chairman Eddy Mons (N-VA Team Eddy) said.
Een verkozen gemeenteraadslid, omringd door politie tijdens een zitting… gewoon omdat ik de voorzitter wees op de foute toepassing van het huishoudelijke reglement en de deontologische code.
— Karim Hassoun ~ كريم حسون (@KarimHassoun_79) February 26, 2025
Dit klinkt als een scène uit een dictatuur, maar het gebeurde deze avond in #Vlaanderen.… pic.twitter.com/DBbq1QraCB
Is political infighting in Willebroek disrupting local governance?
The politicians couldn’t agree on anything, so the city government stopped working. The governor had to step in to help. Karim Hassoun was upset and stayed in the city council by himself. He’s going to sue the mayor and other politicians because they said bad things about him. There’s a lot of disagreement in Willebroek about what people can say, how politicians should represent the people, and what’s okay to say in public meetings.
The leader of the meeting got the rules wrong. The meeting had to stop for a while so everyone could think about what happened. According to the officials, it’s hard to enforce rules and still let people talk to each other respectfully in government meetings, especially when people don’t understand the rules.
After a break, the leader of the meeting came back and said he was sorry for kicking out Hassou. He said he got the rules wrong. Hassou said it was okay because everyone gets upset when they think something isn’t fair, but he was glad the leader admitted he made a mistake. They decided to talk about the problem later.
“First of all, I would like to say that I misinterpreted the internal regulations. I should not have thrown Mr. Hassoun out. That is why I apologize to you, Mr. Hassoun.”
Chairman said.
