This is the usual asshattery from people whose knowledge is based on Disney instead of facts.
As far as voting goes, none of the political parties are truly very active pushing forward a pro-hunting stance. For the Flemish (me) there are three parties a bit less anti-hunting:
- the Vlaams Belang (often called extreme right, but more a nationalist party in reality, a bit like Front National in France)
- CD&V (the traditional center Christian party who most of the farmers vote for too)
- OpenVLD (centre right, liberal party, pro-business)
However all of them concede that hunting is not a mayor attention point in their programs, the strongest pro stance is probably Vlaams Belang. They however have the extreme right connotation. CD&V was also willing to throw farmers under the bus, while OpenVLD is like a prostitute, willing to compromise on all their values, as long as they get a seat at the table. So no good choices unfortunately. And while some might be pro-hunting in Belgium, none of them are pro import of trophies. They are all quick to concede on this to attract more voters. Basically all of them want to play nice with the EU institutions, in order to get cushy jobs there.
And as you can read in the article, the proposal was adopted unanimously. So it is only waiting now for it to become law. One can only hope that CITES importation requests that had a pre-approval would still be honoured after it takes effect. I'll be honest, these past few days I have not been feeling the most upbeat about all of this and it is casting a shadow over my joy for the birth of our second child.
Especially as the import ban is not singling out one or two species, but rather a blanket ban. Looks like it is time to think about moving.
