At the end of August 2025, news spread across the Internet: in Belgium, politician Saliha Reiss called on residents who do not like the spread of Islam in the country to leave. We checked to see if she said anything similar.

Most publications contain a 25-second video of Reiss speaking in French at a meeting. In some posts, subtitles with translation are superimposed on the video (the author's spelling and punctuation are preserved): “If these people wear veils, I can send them a link, apparently this is of great interest, if we are such a nuisance, if they don’t even want to see us anymore... There are 19 municipalities in the region, if Molenbeek is apparently completely unsuitable for you to live in, move to another country, go somewhere else, get out!”

The video received the greatest distribution on Telegram, where it was published by the channels “Belgian politician Saliha Reiss said that residents of Molenbeek (Brussels district), who are annoyed by the sight of covered Muslim women, should leave the country”Dmitry Nicotin"(312,000 views at the time of writing the analysis), "KB"(236,000), "Evil proof"(199,000), Nexta Live (196,000), "Bottle"(171,000), etc. Similar posts can be found on other social networks (“VKontakte", Threads, Facebook), as well as on forums.

Source: social networks

Saliha Reiss - Belgian politician, member of the Social Democratic Party Vooruit. She was born and raised in Molenbeek, is a member of the municipal council of this Brussels region and for some time even performed responsibilities of its leader. Reiss advocates for the development of intercultural communications and women's rights, and also actually wears a headscarf and, apparently, professes Islam.

Video from viral posts is a fragment speeches Reiss at the meeting of the Molenbeek municipal council held on August 27. The video is genuine, it has not been processed (except for adding subtitles) and/or edited using neural networks. However, the translation in the subtitles is not entirely accurate. In fact, Reiss says: “And if these people “who wear curtains” - I can give links if you want, because apparently this is very, very interesting... If we are that much of a nuisance, if they don’t even want to see us, there are 19 communes in the region. Well, if Molenbeek is apparently so unbearable, then move, yes. Go somewhere else. Get out."

It would seem that the subtitles and the correct translation are almost identical, but the mention of curtains adds context that the authors of almost all viral publications completely ignored. The fact is that Reiss decided to defend the right of Muslim women to wear a headscarf at a meeting of the municipal council for a reason (it was also dedicated to a completely different topic - they discussed cruelty to animals and the measures that need to be taken to protect them). Shortly before Reiss' fiery speech, Liberal Councilor MR Didier Milis reproached your colleague, Josiane Dosti from the socialist party PTB, in that she did not respond to letters sent to her in advance on the topic of the meeting, but found time to comment on a post published on MR’s social networks, pointing out the need to moderate comments, including racist ones. Dosti countered that she was on vacation and responded on her first day back to work, and also quoted several racist statements that outraged and shocked her. Some of them were aimed directly at Reiss and her “curtain over her head.” After this, Reiss thanked her colleague for her speech and expressed her own opinion about the racist statements that are left in the comments on the posts of her political opponents. It was not possible to reliably establish which publications we are talking about - representatives of the MR party explained to Reuters that they were removed as xenophobic. This is exactly how authoritative Belgian media, for example the public broadcaster, talk about the conflict between deputies from different parties. VRT and publication Brussels Times.

At that meeting, neither before nor after the politician's short emotional speech, the issues of Islam and migration were discussed, nor how exactly Belgians should treat Muslims. In essence, Reiss’s claims were directed against political opponents who do not remove racist statements from their supporters on the party’s social networks, and not against all Belgians, no matter how they treat Muslims. In a comment to local publication BX1, she clarified, which was speaking exclusively about the district on whose council she sits. According to the politician, there is really no place for xenophobes and racists in Molenbeek; it is better for them to move to another Brussels district. At the same time, “Verified” did not find any evidence in the media or other authoritative sources that Reiss had previously been seen making radical statements on this topic.

Three days after the meeting, on August 30, Georges-Louis Boucher, president of the MR party against which Reiss's speech was directed, published on social network X, a 25-second fragment of a broadcast taken out of context, which eventually went viral. He said Reiss is "imposing a new cultural norm, denying government neutrality, and telling those who want to defend our country's cohabitation model that they can get out if they don't like it." Although Boucher's post received more than 400,000 views, it did not cause a worldwide stir. One of those who contributed much more to the further dissemination of the video was the far-right blogger Radio Genoa, who had previously noticed in publishing false anti-immigrant content. IN post on August 31 he wrote: “Saliha Reiss, a politician from Molenbeek, wants a Europe without Europeans: “Anyone who does not accept veiled women, anyone who does not accept Islam in Belgium, can leave!” This is Islam." The publication received 47 million views, which was also helped by retweeted its owner is X Elon Musk. “The Belgians must leave Belgium?!” This is crazy,” the billionaire commented on the video.

Thus, the video with the resonant statement of Saliha Reiss is real, but taken out of context. In fact, she was outraged by the racist comments on social media of her political opponents and the fact that they were not moderated. In her speech, the politician did not call on those Belgians who do not like Islam to leave the country, but in a later interview she admitted that she also addressed residents of her area who hold xenophobic views. It was the representative of the party that Reiss criticized who first published the video taken out of context, and then right-wing bloggers picked it up, providing the video with hyperbolic comments.

Cover photo: Vooruit.brussels