The Brussels region rejected on Friday June 17 a text aimed at banning the ritual slaughter of animals without prior stunning, which continues to isolate the Belgian capital on this subject compared to Flanders (north) and Wallonia (south) .
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In these two other large regions of Belgium the practice has been prohibited since 2019, and the EU justice had supported their legislation in 2020 by judging that such a ban was not contrary to European law, which had been deplored by Jewish and Muslim organizations.
In the Brussels regional parliament, after several weeks of heated debate, a draft ordinance aimed at banning slaughter without stunning was rejected on Friday.
He was opposed by most of the elected PS and Ecolo, two French-speaking parties which constitute the backbone of the regional majority.
“A failure for animal welfare”
“
I am obviously disappointed with the result, it is a failure for animal welfare
”, reacted to AFP Jonathan de Patoul elected from the centrist Challenge party which carried the draft ordinance with the Dutch-speaking Open-VLD formations. (liberals) and Groen (ecologist).
The association for the defense of animals Gaia judged for its part "
hallucinating
" that the Brussels deputies ignore the scientific consensus having established that farm animals suffer much more during slaughter if they have not been stunned prior.
“
Politicians should base themselves on science.
However, this is clearly not the case.
Because of them, hundreds of thousands of animals will still be slaughtered in the worst pain
“, denounced Ann De Greef, one of the leaders of Gaia, quoted by the Belga press agency.
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The debate was lively within the political families themselves.
Thus the ban was opposed by the French-speaking left but supported by the Flemish counterparts of the PS and Ecolo, the Vooruit and Groen parties.
A Brussels MP for Vooruit, Fouad Ahidar, was sanctioned for opposing the ban, ignoring his party's voting instructions.
He was dismissed Friday from the political office.
Ten days ago, no majority emerged in committee in the Brussels Parliament to validate the Challenge-Groen-Open VLD draft ordinance.
Friday in plenary session the conclusions of the commission tending to the rejection of the text were validated by a narrow majority, by 42 votes "
for
", 38 "
no
" and eight abstentions.
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