Exclusive: MEP Denounces Appointment of ‘Woke Extremist’ to Historic City Top Culture Role

Architecture, Brugse Vrije, Bruges City Hall, Burg Square, Bruges, Flanders, Belgium
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Peter Caddle

Cruel irony looms as “woke extremist” accused of racial statements and of campaigning against culture and history has been appointed to an important cultural position, prompting concern.

Tom Vandendriessche, an MEP for the Flemish Vlaams Belang party, has derided the appointment of Dalilla Hermans to a leadership position in the city of Bruges, describing the progressive activist and writer as a “woke extremist” who deals in “blatant anti-white racism”.

Originally from Rwanda, Hermans has made a number of extremely provocative statements in the past, once claiming that “whites have always been on the wrong side” of history.

Despite such a controversial background, Hermans has now been appointed to serve as the programme coordinator for Bruges’ attempt to become the cultural capital of Europe in 2030.

Such a move has provoked outrage from multiple political parties in the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium, who have expressed shock that an activist who has previously shown contempt for various elements of Flemish culture would be put in charge of marketing it to those abroad.

“She is known as a woke activist who wants to “decolonise” our society, topple statues, disdain our unique culture and transform our identity into so-called super-diversity,” Vandendriessche explained to Breitbart Europe regarding the situation.

The MEP particularly emphasised one of the woke author’s previous statements about white people, which he described as being “blatantly racist”.

Speaking to the Belgian newspaper De Standaard  in 2017, Hermans derided white people as always being on the “wrong side” of history, while Africans have managed to “transcend”.

“Throughout history, the whites have always been on the wrong side,” she said. “In almost every story the whites brought death, destruction and misery… While the blacks always transcended their fate.”

Statements like these, in Vandendriessche’s eyes, make it unacceptable for Hermans to be put in charge of marketing Bruges’ culture.

“Racism works in all directions,” he said. “Therefore, by definition, she cannot be the person responsible for making Bruges the cultural capital of Europe.”

“Woke does not represent us,” he went on to say. “Woke does not belong in Bruges or anywhere else.”

Vandendriessche has now formally penned a letter to the Bruges City Council asking for the appointment to be revoked, with the document calling for Hermans’ dismissal also being signed by elected MEPs from France, Germany, Italy and a number of other European nations.

The view that the activist is unfit for the role also appears to be held by a number of other senior politicians in Belgium, with New Flemish Alliance party leader, Bart De Wever, also describing the appointment as unacceptable considering Hermans’ views on white people.

“If someone said something like that in this studio, that blacks were always on the wrong side of history, and so on, that person might not qualify for anything,” he said during an interview on Tuesday. “Anyone who says something like that about white people is not suitable as a culture [officer].”

“If a white person would have said about blacks what Dalilla Hermans said about whites, he would have to go to court,” he went on to say, referencing hate speech legislation in place in Belgium.

So far, Hermans has seemingly dismissed criticism of her appointments as “hate comments“, adding that she will not be “intimidated” by those describing her appointment to the position as unacceptable.

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