Jos D’Haese (PVDA) no longer a vegetarian after twenty years: ‘I no longer wanted to be that troublesome person who always asks for veggie burgers’

Vegetarian (1)

Flemish Member of Parliament Jos D’Haese (PVDA), also the most popular politician on Tiktok, gives in The Sunday allows him to enjoy a good piece of meat again after almost twenty years. ‘I have been a vegetarian for almost twenty years: from the age of 12 to the age of 30. I stopped taking it last year. I no longer wanted to be that troublesome person at a family barbecue who always asks for veggie burgers. I became a vegetarian because I wanted to save the climate. But in the end you wonder whether you are fooling yourself. Today I have to conclude that my individual commitment has not changed one bit.’

Racist (1)

Not everyone is a vegetarian, but everyone is probably a bit racist. At least according to former Vooruit figurehead Louis Tobback. “We are probably all a bit racist inside,” he says in an interview with The last news. He responded to the ‘zattemanslap’ by chairman Conner Rousseau (Vooruit), who did not speak very nicely about the Roma community. ‘It is civilization that makes us control ourselves on such points. When I come to Molenbeek, I also feel strange. Do I feel the urge to say that? No.’

Vegetarian (2)

D’Haese does not rule out becoming a vegetarian again. “Today, climate policy is being shifted too much to the individual,” he says. ‘If agricultural policy really changes tomorrow, then I will let go pieces meat likes to fall again. But why would you do that today, if meat production continues to rise? That doesn’t make much sense.’ By the way, it took some getting used to choosing meat again. “It was quite disappointing at first,” he says. ‘But in the meantime I might like it, yes.’

Racist (2)

Tobback regrets that Rousseau lost his sense of civilization as a result of drinking, causing him to make a mistake. ‘Not that I want to play mother-in-law, but if you stand where he stands, you can no longer afford to do such feats at six in the morning with a piece in your collar. What he did was wrong, period. But should they now prosecute him as a racist? When I see how much effort it takes to condemn the extreme cases of Dries Van Langenhove…’

Stake

“Anzegem is, next to my wife, the love of my life,” says Groen co-chairman Jeremie Vaneeckhout in a press release. He will be on the Bet list for the municipal elections next year and will immediately be a candidate for mayor. An open list with orange, red, green, blue and independent members. ‘If I receive the support of the residents, I will take up the mayorship fully. For me it’s about them, the residents.’ Bet also participated in 2018 and is currently part of the majority in Anzegem.