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Ghent’s Multilingual Low Emission Zone Posters Spark Political Debate
Monday 20 January 2020, by
The far-right party, Vlaams Belang, has just filed a complaint against the municipality of Ghent regarding posters that would not respect the linguistic legislation in force. The posters in question inform the Turkish and Arabic-speaking communities about the low emission zone.
The cabinet of Alderman Tine Heye refutes these accusations and explains that it is an exceptional campaign addressed to a specific target and which scrupulously respects the linguistic legislation. But what is it really about?
Indeed, the City of Ghent has launched a major information campaign to inform all its residents about the low emission zone, which will be applied from February. Ten posters have been placed on the facades of mosques, with explanations in Dutch, Turkish, and Arabic, reports 7sur7.be.
But Vlaams Belang insists that any information from public services to citizens "must be done in the administrative language of the municipality or city, in this case Dutch," stresses the party’s group leader, Johan Deckmyn.