BRUSSELS —A Belgian Socialist politician criticized the current center-right liberal government for having made Belgium ‘’a country of Antwerp diamond dealers,’’ a remark which can be interpreted as ”anti-Semitic” as the diamond business in the port city has traditionally been predominantly Jewish.
Elio Di Rupo, who is president of the French-speaking Socialist Party and a former Prime Minister, made the statement in an interview published Saturday in daily newspaper L’Echo.
‘’This is an observation. Belgium cannot be governed as it is today: only for the richest and most powerful. It’s a Belgium of Antwerp diamond dealers that we have today when we need a plural Belgium. It is an uninhibited right-wing politics that thinks they know everything, but whose figures prove they are wrong,” he said in the interview.
While more than 80% of Antwerp’s Jewish population has been working in the diamond trade, over the last years the business has been taken over by the Indians.