Belgian rightist knife attack on leftist MP

Raoul Hedebouw's May Day speech after the right-wing knife attack, photo by Belga

According to Belgian daily Het Nieuwsblad, today the leftist Workers Party of Belgium (PTB) had a May Day rally in Liège city. Their MP Raoul Hedebouw would speak.

Then, suddenly a man, estimated to be in his fifties, appeared. He screamed: ‘The PTB are all idiots! So, I attack them!‘ The, presumably extreme right, man then attacked Hedebouw with a knife.

Though Hedebouw was injured, he still did his speech; and went to the hospital after the rally. He promised to come back to the May Day participants after the hospital, for the May Day march. ‘They can’t silence us’.

The attacker was arrested. Besides the knife, he had pepper spray as well on him. As he, presumably, was not a Muslim, corporate media probably won’t call him a ‘terrorist’. Like the nazi murderer of British MP Jo Cox was also often not called ‘terrorist’.

Raoul Hedebouw is a 39-year-old biologist.

Dutch NOS TV compares Hedebouw’s PTB-PVDA party to the left movement of Jean-Luc Mélenchon in France.

According to Belgian VRT TV, polls say that the PTB-PVDA in Wallonia would get over 20% of the vote; more than the social democratic PS, traditionally the biggest party in Wallonia.