Weyts Staffer Posed as Gay Muslim in Fabricated Op-Ed

A staff member on the cabinet of Flemish minister Ben Weyts (N-VA) sent a fabricated opinion piece to multiple Flemish newsrooms, posing as a 29-year-old gay Muslim man from the Antwerp district of Borgerhout, according to VRT NWS. The deception, first uncovered by the weekly magazine Knack, has raised sharp questions about the integrity of communications from a senior minister’s office.

The minister called the episode “gewoonweg dom” — simply stupid — but declined to dismiss the employee immediately.

How the Deception Unfolded

In late September, several Flemish newsrooms received an email titled “Gay en moslim: ja, ik ben extreemrechts hun ergste nachtmerrie” (Gay and Muslim: yes, I am the extreme right’s worst nightmare). The sender presented himself as “Mohammed El Idrissi,” a gay Muslim man from Borgerhout.

The column discussed recent cases of anti-gay violence and referenced Flemish content creator Jonatan Medart, who was followed and repeatedly insulted on the street in Ghent with his boyfriend in late September. Medart filed a police complaint, and local authorities opened an investigation, as VRT NWS reported.

In the fabricated piece, “Mohammed” argued that when such incidents occur, people immediately look to Muslims — while he said he felt fully accepted as a gay man in Borgerhout, unlike in his in-laws’ village in the Antwerp Kempen. The column also criticized Vlaams Belang chairman Tom Van Grieken and N-VA figure Theo Francken for using stories about Muslims and homophobia to advance a broader narrative that Muslims threaten Western values.

Unmasked by Document Metadata

Knack discovered that the sender did not exist. According to the magazine’s investigation, the real name was found in the document properties — the metadata — of the attached column. The email had been sent from a mailbox under the fictitious name.

Knack subsequently confirmed that the sender was a cabinet staff member of Weyts, who serves as viceminister-president of the Flemish Government and minister of Finance, Budget, the Flemish Rand, Immovable Heritage and Animal Welfare, according to his official profile.

The column was published by only one outlet, DeWereldMorgen.be, which removed it after Knack warned the publication.

The Staffer’s Stated Motive

Speaking to Knack, the staff member said the action was a personal initiative unrelated to his professional duties. He said he wanted to demonstrate that certain voices — conservative ones, in his view — struggle to find space on the opinion pages of Flemish media, compared with those of queer Muslims.

Weyts said the staffer’s explanation did not excuse the conduct. “It was a personal initiative, completely separate from the cabinet, but that does not excuse it,” the minister said in a written response.

He added that he would address the matter privately. “The question now is whether we should immediately chastise and throw out young people who do stupid things. I take this up personally with him and discuss it face to face, but that conversation will certainly not be easy.” The cabinet declined to comment further.

Calls for Consequences

The affair drew pointed criticism from political journalists. Ivan De Vadder, a prominent VRT political analyst, said the staffer should no longer work at a cabinet.

“People can make mistakes, but as far as I’m concerned, this person can no longer work at a cabinet,” he said. “How can you still have confidence in that cabinet’s communications if you know they may have been written by someone trying to mislead people on very sensitive matters?”

“Real fake news was sent into the world, with the intention of influencing public opinion, the press and everyone who reads it,” De Vadder added.

Why It Matters

The episode sits at the intersection of several sensitive Flemish debates: the place of Muslims and Islam in society, the fight against anti-gay violence, the perceived ideological balance of opinion pages, and the rivalry between N-VA and Vlaams Belang, both of which campaign on migration and identity themes. The fabricated column inverted a common right-wing framing — that Muslims pose a threat to LGBT people — to attack N-VA and Vlaams Belang, which is why its authorship by an N-VA staffer is politically explosive.

More broadly, the case has been framed as fabricated media originating from within a government cabinet, a scenario that strains trust in official communications. As of Monday, no dismissal had been announced. The staffer’s name has not been publicly reported. Whether Weyts’s private conversation with the employee results in disciplinary action — and whether the affair further erodes confidence in cabinet communications — remains the central question in the days ahead.