LAURENT LOUIS: OUSTED TROLL OF THE MONTH - JANUARY
The Ousted Troll of the Month is an episode we choose every month to show positive outcomes in the fight against antisemitism in Europe
Laurent Louis, French-speaking Belgian politician as well as former member of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives, has been acting very regularly upon his antisemitic ideologies via Facebook and Twitter.
His Twitter account has been removed in January, thus definitely closing one fundamental channel of his hate speech online.
On the 15th of December 2015, Louis tweeted various comments expressing absurd beliefs that Israel was behind the actions of Nazi Germany and is now behind the terrorist acts of ISIS.
Again, in late December of 2015, Louis published a Facebook post to his followers regarding his beliefs towards the Islamic State being connected to the Israeli government in order to achieve “Zionist” goals.
Striking once more before the turn of the New Year, Louis posted a slideshow of Holocaust images as a New Years greeting to his followers – in his own words “My wish for 2016 and the years to come”, receiving over 5,000 views.
Laurent Louis’ social media outbursts in December were unfortunately not the first of his heinous displays of antisemitic ideology.
In June of 2013, Louis was seen outside of the Israeli Embassy in Brussels, trampling over the Israeli flag at a pro-Bashar Assad rally in support of a regime that is well known for using chemical weapons against its own people.
Louis has even come as far as starting his own political party Debout les Belges (which has since been dissolved due to the lack of support) presumably in promotion of antisemitic hate speech and condemnation, though Louis denied having any of those intentions.
In November 2015, during a conference with Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem, Louis reportedly went as far as saying that, "the Western leaders' collaboration with terrorism has been exposed, despite their false claims that they are protecting democracy and human rights” (as reported by interpreters).
While Louis’ statements are clearly irrational and delusional, there is no doubt that this public figure has got a powerful influence over fueling antisemitic thoughts and actions due to his presence in the media.
Laurent Louis’ actions have not gone unnoticed by the public. The Belgian League against antisemitism filed a complaint against him in mid-2014. Furthermore, on the 23rd of June 2015, Louis was condemned – via legal action by Le Centre Interfédéral pour l’égalité des Chances – to an 18,000 euro fine as well as six months of detainment in prison for persistent denial of the Holocaust.
