The wedding is off

You’d think this kind of thing couldn’t possibly happen today, but three couples refused to get married in a Belgian municipality because the alderman for civic affairs is… black.

That’s the only reason why the couples cancelled at the very last minute in the town of Sint-Niklaas. The mayor’s reaction was shock, however does not think it has anything to do with the fact that the right-wing party Vlaams Belang holds a third of the seats in the city council. The alderman, Wouter Van Bellingen, whose name is as Flemish as it can get, was adopted as a child by Flemish parents. He doesn’t seem too bothered by the whole fiasco.

”If people want to refuse me as the alderman of civic affairs at their wedding, there are three options: they could not marry, they could move house, or they could accept me as their alderman”.