German Greens MEP Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana is moved during his speech before the European Parliament on the racism episode suffered
BERLIN – Yesterday morning at dawn he called her the leader of the European Greens, Ska Keller, to tell him about the racist episode suffered by his colleague Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, attacked by the Belgian police. “I was frozen, I immediately offered to have her open the plenary”. David Sassoli remembers on the phone with Republic thus the beginning of yesterday, marked by the racist violence suffered by a member of the Greens on Tuesday evening, in the heart of Brussels. “A serious and unpleasant episode which I also asked the Belgian Prime Minister for, Sophie Wilmés“This morning the President of the European Parliament will send Wilmés a letter asking for the mistreatment inflicted by the Belgian police on the black parliamentarian elected in Germany.
In an attempt to defend two black men surrounded by nine Belgian policemen who were mistreating them, Herzberger-Fofana she was slammed against the wall and brutally searched. And his attempts to show the European Parliamentary pass and his German passport have failed. “Pierrette told me last night that the cops even made fun of her, they said ‘Ah yes? And who knows what you’ll ever do in Parliament?’ They did not believe that a black woman could be a European parliamentarian. Scandalous, “comments Sassoli.
Herzberger-Fofana was saved from the arrival of Parliament’s car, she adds: “It is only then that they stopped treating her badly as if she boasted a status she didn’t have.” A further detail will also have to be clarified, stresses the President of the European Parliament: “The four policemen who were attacking the parliamentary colleague at a certain point noticed a man who was observing the scene and threatened him: ‘Shut up’. Unfortunately for them, he was a human rights lawyer who denounced them for intimidation. ”
On the agenda of yesterday’s plenary there was precisely the debate on George Floyd and racism, Herzberger-Fofana opened the session by telling the attack immediately. He also wanted to be present at the debate Ursula von der Leyen, president of the EU Commission. “It was not obvious”, Sassoli observes, “you can see that he was very keen to attend the discussion on racism”.
The question, however, is: what can be done against racism, what commitment can the President of the EU Parliament make? According to Sassoli “there must be greater involvement of minorities also in the institutions. We must improve the selection mechanisms, guarantee access to all. We must reflect on this”.
Web24 / Balkantimes.press
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