Wallonia's Minister for Local Authorities Christophe Collignon, as well as two local mayors, have received death threats over the merger of two of the region's municipalities. They add their name to the long list of Belgian politicians to have been violently threatened in recent times.
In an interview he gave to the French-speaking outlet SudInfo, Wallonia's Minister Collignon explained that the municipality of Bastogne had received the threatening letter, in which the author stated his opposition to the town's merger with Bertogne.
However, the minister stated that the letter "had crossed a line" after making specific threats to Collignon, as well as both municipalities' mayors, in which they stated that they were heavily armed and had "enough time on my hands to kill them all."
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In response, the Walloon Minister stated that such occurrences risk becoming normalised, especially due to social media. "We sometimes feel as if certain citizens no longer accept democracy," Collignon explained, "here we have someone threatening to kill you because they cannot accept a decision."
Moreover, the incident serves as a stark reminder of growing violence towards Belgian politicians, which has led to the aforementioned rise of Belgian politicians being put under police protection.
