EU president forced to remove poem from his website after its pointed out it was by well known Nazi who wanted «vermin Jews» exterminated
European Union president Herman Van Rompuy has been forced to remove a poem from his personal website after Jewish activists complained the author was a well-known Nazi.
The poem, The Seagull, was removed yesterday after a group dedicated to fighting anti-semitism pointed out that the author was sentenced to death for collaborating with the Nazis during the Second World War.
The poet, Cyriel Verschaeve, was a priest from Flanders in Belgium’s northern half, who in his political pamphlets likened Jews to «vermin» and «weeds» that needed exterminating.
He was promoted to head of the Flemish cultural council by the Nazis during the occupation of Belgium and fled to Austria when the allies liberated the country in 1944, taking part thereafter in the Flemish government in exile.
He was sentenced to death by the Belgian courts when the war ended, but the sentence was never carried out as Austria did not extradite him. He died there in 1949.
Mr Van Rompuy, who has been accused of being the «human face» of Flemish extremists, said he included the poem on his website because it was a favourite of his mother-in-law.
As chairman of the European Council, Van Rompuy is in frequent touch with all EU heads of state and government, including David Cameron. He is something of a poet himself and is well known for writing haikus or short poems in traditional Japanese style.
The Belgian League against anti-semitism welcomed the decision to take down the poem, which dates back to 1909.
«Whereas this poem contains no anti-semitic references and was on Mr Van Rompuy’s website for personal reasons that have no relation with the political convictions of the author, the League underlines that this is an oeuvre by the writer Cyriel Verschaeve, who, from 1940, collaborated actively with the Nazi occupiers and was sentenced to death in absentia by the Belgian courts after the Second World War», it said in a statement.
