The Environment Committee of the Brussels Regional Parliament rejected a proposal to ban religious slaughter in the Belgian capital.
Six members of the committee voted against the proposed ordinance, six were in favor and three abstained. Nevertheless, the proposal will come up again at the June 17 plenary session, but only through a vote on the committee’s conclusions to reject the ban. If the conclusions were rejected, the debate on the entire proposal would be reopened in session, which certainly does not seem out of the question.
During the debate, the ruling left-wing parties PS and One.brussels voted not to support the their coalition partners Defi, Open VLD and Groen, who had authored the proposal.
The far-left PVDA (PTB) did not support the ban either. Opposition parties, MR and N-VA voted in support of the ban, while Ecolo abstained.
The Brussels Capital Region is the last of Belgium’s three regions where the slaughter of animals for meat in the manner prescribed in Judaism and Islam remains legal, following bans by the regions of Flanders and Wallonia in 2019.