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Belgian gov't party receives death threats over new policy

Xinhua, May 13, 2015 Adjust font size:

Members of Belgium's governing Mouvement Reformateur (MR) party received death threats over its new policy of monitoring the unemployed, Le Soir reported on Wednesday.

Earlier in the month, Bart Tommelein, state secretary for the fight against social fraud, announced that officials from the National Employment Office (NEO) would be given powers to carry out surprise inspections on the homes of the unemployed in a bid to detect any fraud.

President of the Senate, Christine Defraigne (MR), said on Wednesday that "several municipal councillors in Liege found outside their homes tags with threatening inscriptions and a Nazi symbol."

She added that the MR offices in Liege had also been daubed with similar graffiti.

Defraigne, from Liege, was also targeted in a social media posting that employed a black triangle symbol, a sign the Nazis used to identify the long-term unemployed. Similar leaflets were also produced.

"As democrats, we find it unacceptable to be equated in any manner whatsoever to the Nazis. We regret the cowardice of those individuals who cloak themselves in anonymity," said Defraigne.

According to the National Employment Office, in 2014 there were 10,566 cases of social welfare fraud. In 2013, 8,379 cases of fraud were uncovered following inspections.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the Federal Planning Bureau predicted a slight yearly decline in the number of people unemployed in Belgium. Endit