Erland Pison (born 4 October 1974) was a Belgian politician for

Vlaams Belang Vlaams Belang (; ; VB) is a Flemish nationalist, Eurosceptic and right-wing populist political party in the Flemish Region and Brussels Capital Region of Belgium. It is widely considered by the media and political analysts to be on the polit ...

Career

After completing his lawstudies at the

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. Founded in 1425, it is the oldest university in Belgium and the oldest university in the Low Countries. In addition to its main camp ...

, he moved in 1999 to

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

to start his legal career in public law. From 2004 till 2009 he was elected for the

Brussels Parliament The Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (; ) is the governing body of the Brussels-Capital Region, one of the three federated regions of Belgium. It is als ...

. In November 2004, Pison ran for the presidency of Vlaams Belang but was not elected. From 2006 till 2009 he was also elected municipal councillor of

Koekelberg Koekelberg (; ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the north-western part of the region, it is bordered by Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, Ganshoren, Jette, and Molenbeek-Saint-Jean. In common with al ...

. In 2010 he left politics and the bar of Brussels to study international relations. Pison re-entered politics in 2019. From 2019 until his dismissal in 2022, he was accredited parliamentary assistant (APA) at the European Parliament. Despite his earlier dismissal, Pison applied again for a job at Vlaams Belang, but was refused by the party.

Controversy

In 2022, Pison contacted the far-left news site Apache with allegations about his former employer. Vlaams Belang denied the allegations and points to Pisons personal and political motivation for the allegations. Neither legal proceedings nor journalism could prove any of the allegations thusfar. In 2024, Apache and Humo discovered that Pison gave a tour of the

Flemish Parliament The Flemish Parliament (Dutch language, Dutch: , formerly called Flemish Council or ''Vlaamse Raad'') constitutes the legislature, legislative power in Flanders for matters which fall within the competence of Flanders, both as a geographic reg ...

as a member of the Brussels Parliament to

Roman Zentsov Roman Zentsov (, ) (born September 10, 1973 in Bryansk) is a retired Russian heavyweight mixed martial arts fighter who has competed in the PRIDE Fighting Championships, a major MMA organization based in Japan, and BodogFIGHT. Zentsov has an overa ...

, ex-MMA-fighter and leader of the Russian far-right organisation Soprotivlenie and called Zentsov an "ally in the common struggle against the islamic threat to Europe" in which "Russia has an important role to play". Already in 2009, Pison claimed to have met Russian politicians and to have stirred the interest of younger generations for Putins Russia. In the same year, Pison was invited to speak at the so-called Seliger-camp, a youth festival known for its ties to the regime and as a propaganda instrument for Moscow. Pisons father-in-law has a history of working with the Russian security service FSBhttps://www.humo.be/nieuws/eerst-als-studenten-beinvloed-door-rusland-nu-bij-vlaams-belang-we-moeten-een-nieuwe-elite-creeren-stijlvol-ordevol-moreel-intellectueel-doelbewust~b7940202/

References

1974 births Living people Vlaams Belang politicians Members of the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region People from Schoten {{Brussels-politician-stub