Brussels Member of Parliament Khadija Zamouri is leaving Open VLD

After a disagreement with the party over support for the new political party Viva Palestina, Brussels Member of Parliament Khadija Zamouri is leaving Open VLD. She also had a different position than the party on a ban on slaughter without stunning. “I have always been liberal, precisely because of freedom of thought, based on democratic values. That is a breaking point for me.”

“Where is the liberal appreciation of personal freedom?” Khadija Zamouri leaves Open VLD and submits her party card. For the little time left until the elections, she will sit in the Brussels Parliament as an independent. Next Friday is the last plenary session of parliament.

The party had initiated disciplinary proceedings after it emerged that Zamouri had signed Dyab Abou Jahjah for the establishment of his new party Viva Palestina. She recently helped the PS in the Brussels Parliament to obtain the necessary signatures to postpone a vote on the Animal Welfare Codex. The Animal Welfare Codex includes a possible ban on slaughter without stunning. The party is in favor of such a ban, but Zamouri has a somewhat different view.

“I am not so much against a ban on slaughter without stunning, but I think that the Animal Welfare Codex does not go far enough. I think it is ethnically profiling that the focus is on slaughter without stunning, while lobsters can still be boiled alive. Muslims and Jews are being targeted, which is contrary to freedom of religion. Those who now claim to be so in favor of animal welfare are not sincere.”

Bitter pill

However, the disciplinary proceedings were initiated because of her support for the establishment of Viva Palestine. “The party chairman asked me by email to withdraw my signature. I didn’t do that, just for the sake of democracy. Today I am not going to deny any other political party the opportunity to take the floor and end up in parliament, because then we will no longer be in a democracy. I have always been a liberal, precisely because of the freedom of thought, based on democratic values. That is a breaking point for me.”

Zamouri was supposed to appear before the party’s disciplinary council on Monday, but she will not go. “I am leaving the party and handing in my party card. Very unfortunate, because I always thought I would die as a liberal. After 24 years this is a bitter pill.”

Abortion, euthanasia, anti-Semitism

Zamouri started her career as a cabinet employee at various Open VLD ministers in Brussels. In 2011 she ended up in the Flemish Parliament to succeed Sven Gatz. Afterwards she was party leader of Open VLD in the Brussels Parliament for five years. She was also alderman in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek for a short time.

“I believe in the freedom of choice of the individual. That is precisely why I have voted for abortion and euthanasia in the past and recently against anti-Semitism. Today I am being summoned before a disciplinary committee because of that same personal freedom. I choose to stay true to my values ​​and look elsewhere for satisfaction.”

Zamouri was no longer on a list of Open VLD. She also does not join any other political party.