2023-11-21 18:36:00
This leniency shown so quickly is surprising. The survey was carried out on November 20, a weekendafter the announcement of the resignation of the Flemish wonderboy and five days after the Nieuwsblad revealed the racist remarks towards the Roma community that he had made at the beginning of September in a bar in Sint-Niklas.
”These Roma or other gypsies are there every fucking day with their fryer, their mattresses near the glass bubble. Really, we need to get rid of these Roma. We can’t mess around with these guys,” he said under the influence of alcohol, inviting the police to use their batons on the travelers and a local punk.
In the mouth of a French-speaking representative, these words would have meant an instant end to his career. At the PS, we recall that an alderman of Neupré, Benoît Hons, was excluded from the party for also having made insulting remarks towards Travelers. At the MR, Georges-Louis Bouchez, tells us that if such invectives had come out of his mouth, he would have been immediately thrown out of the presidency.
At Vooruit, on the other hand, the approach is diametrically opposite. Members of the party publicly disapproved of their president’s comments, some in Brussels called for his departure, but in the end, almost no one demanded his resignation. In the party office, 90% were against.
In the political backwater, it is whispered that Conner Rousseau dared to say out loud what a large part of the Flemish population thinks, clearly more sensitive to migration issues than their French-speaking neighbors. “Deep down, we are probably all a little racist,” dared Louis Tobback, long-time member of the sp.a. “I belong to a society where mistakes cannot be forgiven. I really don’t want to live there,” said MP Theo Francken (N-VA), deeming Rousseau’s excuses “honest”.
Thus, the fact that so many potential voters are ready to forgive the socialist Icarus cannot be summarized in a reading that would see the Flemings more racist than the French speakers. In the survey published on the DH website, 71% of respondents responded that Conner Rousseau deserved a second chance. This absolution granted to the “comet” must be placed in a broader perception of the character.
Conner Rousseau’s career as president of the Flemish socialists has been an uninterrupted series of media scandals and paradoxical expressions. Between the tabloidization of his private life and the new destiny that he was able to imprint on his party, there are two opposing worlds that he was able to bring together.
In Flanders, his political success had made him the man to be killed, but his multiple exits made him his own worst enemy. The thirty-year-old, central figure in a party known for its anti-racism, was seen as one of the last barriers against the rise of the far-right. However, it is racist remarks that will mark his departure. Often caricatured for his hunky physique, the socialist from Sint-Niklas was in reality an outstanding debater, capable of undermining the biggest figures in politics. Electorally, Rousseau is a monster who manipulates the codes of youth and the protocols of the past.
It is undoubtedly this disparate puzzle of perceptions of the contradictory facets of his personality which explains that today, Conner enjoys a certain clemency from the Flemish population.
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