The city council of Ypres will examine this afternoon whether the extreme right-wing festival Frontnacht can continue on Saturday. That festival will be organized as part of the Yserwake next Sunday. European intelligence services have labeled the event as an extreme right-wing threat. Vooruit chairman Conner Rousseau is already playing hard. In ‘VTM NIEUWS’ he threatens to leave the city council of the peace city with the socialist party if the music festival continues. “We don’t want to give a stage to neo-Nazis with Vooruit.”
The Yserwake arose as a radical separation from the Yser pilgrimage. Every year at the end of August, the organization brings together thousands of people in Steenstrate near Ypres. This year, the extreme right-wing festival Frontnacht will be added on Saturday.
The action group Peace Collective Ypres previously protested against the fact that the city of Ypres had granted the festival a permit subject to conditions. The collective read the lyrics of some bands that perform there, and came to the conclusion that those conditions were being violated. In the lyrics, incitement to discrimination and violence, ideas of racial superiority or racial hatred and neo-Nazis were found.
The security services are also concerned about the event. “A document from US SITE Intelligence, a research group that monitors jihadist, far-left and far-right activities, categorizes the event as a far-right threat. The document is shared by various European intelligence services,” writes Het Nieuwsblad, after confirmation from a source at one of the intelligence services.
According to the same source, neighboring countries would also be dissatisfied with the fact that Belgium has not banned Front Night.
The city of Ypres is currently considering the matter. “After the event was licensed, clear conditions were drawn up. For example, no groups or bands that have ties to neo-Nazis are allowed to play,” explains ships of Evenementen Diego Desmadryl (Open VLD) to news agency Belga. “Security services have checked whether the conditions are met and based on their advice we are looking at whether the festival can continue.”
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