A couple of years ago the Swiss People’s Party got itself in hot water by displaying election posters that showed a black sheep (representing criminal immigrants) being kicked out of Switzerland. The image was denounced as “racist”, but the party continued to use it, and did very well in the elections.

Now the Flemish nationalist party Vlaams Belang finds itself in a similar situation in Belgium, only this time it’s a red sheep — a red Turkish-Moroccan sheep, to be precise. Racism once again rears its ugly head!

 

Turkey protests anti-immigrant poster in Belgium

The Turkish Embassy in Brussels has condemned a far-right party after it used posters depicting Turkish and Moroccan immigrants as a sheep being kicked out of Europe. World Bulletin / News Desk

The Turkish Embassy in Brussels has condemned a far-right party after it used posters depicting Turkish and Moroccan immigrants as a sheep being kicked out of Europe.

The poster was presented at a conference of the anti-immigrant Flaman Vlaams Belang party over the weekend. It features a white sheep that symbolizes European states exiling a red sheep with printed flags of Turkey and Morocco. It reportedly is based on a similar poster used earlier in another European country, Switzerland.

Turkish Ambassador to Belgium Murat Ersavcý said in a statement that Turkey condemned the poster, saying it was racist and xenophobic and that it stirs ethnic hatred. “It thus constitutes a crime under Belgian law,” the ambassador said, underlining that Turkey was in contact with the Belgian Foreign Ministry and other authorities to express its objections over and seek action against the poster.