Bart De Wever, the potential next prime minister of Belgium, said Tuesday that “mostly non-European” young immigrants are showing “increasingly thuggish behavior.”
De Wever, a conservative Flemish separatist who is mayor of Antwerp, reacted with fury after three young men nabbed an ambulance for a joyride in the city over the weekend.
According to De Wever’s trenchant remarks, this is not an isolated incident.
“We are recording more and more violence or thuggish behavior against anyone who represents authority — think of paramedics, firefighters and social workers,” the mayor said in an interview with Flemish broadcaster VRT.
“They are almost always young people of immigrant origin, mostly non-European, who grow up in our cities without much perspective. They also often have links to criminal organizations,” said De Wever, adding that they even have “meter-thick” files on those in the footage of last Saturday.
De Wever said the “source of all misery” seems to be Belgium’s immigration policy. He added that, while he’d start tackling the problem by showing young children how the city provides essential services, there were many people — like those who drove off in the ambulance — who can’t be dealt with that way.
De Wever, who was asked last week by Belgium’s King Philippe to resume coalition talks to form a new government, has two more weeks to talk to his potential partners. If he succeeds, he would likely become the first Flemish separatist to lead the federal government as prime minister.