Sarah Schlitz case: in November 2022, the logo of the Secretary of State already had to be removed from a project

Sarah Schlitz announces that she will resign: “The N-VA has made a symbol of me. By resigning, I take this symbol away from them”

This leaflet dates from September 2022, the date on which the association which fights against menstrual precariousness communicated on this program intended for young people aged 12 in school and extracurricular settings. At the time, several media welcomed the initiative. On this prospectus, we find the logo of the Secretary of State. Which is no coincidence. Like 47 other projects, “the Rule of 3” was selected by the Schlitz firm as part of the “As long as it takes” call for projects.

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The DH showed last Thursday that the occurrence of these logos was the consequence of a request from the environmental cabinet. The latter produced a good practice guide which specified that the beneficiary associations had to use its logo. Sarah Schlitz apologized for this “clumsiness” Thursday in the House, while two days earlier she said that the error came from the Institute for the Equality of Women and Men (IEFH). Her defense then consisted of saying that the IEFH had presented her with this vade-mecum and that she had validated it without asking any questions. An attitude that she justifies by the fact that her predecessor Zuhal Demir (N-VA) was already doing it.

After Tuesday’s passage in the electoral expenses committee, the Schlitz cabinet contacted the associations participating in the call for projects “As long as it takes” to ask them to remove the logo from their communication support. One of these associations did not need to do it because it had already cleaned up two months earlier. This is BruZelle.

Using the Wayback Machine web page archiving tool, we were able to see that between October 2 and November 27, the “Sarah Schlitz” logo was removed from the bottom of BruZelle’s website where it appeared alongside the other subsidizing bodies (Cocom and FWB). Ecolo assures us that it has nothing to do with it. “The problem is to ask to put a logo, not to remove it”, says the party spokeswoman. When asked whether they have a responsibility in this change, the spokesperson for the federal elected official answers: “No not at all”. Contacted, the BruZelle association was not able to explain to us what had caused this deletion.

This explanation, we find it partially in other ministries. In the fall, the presence of the logo on the educational material subsidized by several federated entities had raised some eyebrows in intercabinet. No minutes mention it, but it comes back to us that this discussion would have caused some turmoil in other parties. The tensions then provoked would have spread to the headquarters of Ecolo, which would then have demanded to have what appears to be electoral propaganda removed.

If what our sources slip to us is true, it means that the Secretary of State was – in the fall of 2022 – already aware that the use of her logo was illegal and ethically indefensible. That is several months before the commission where she blamed her administration.

This blunder comes on top of the many balls that punctuate the development of the “logo-gate”. One could add another irregularity. The Maison Arc-en-Ciel (MAC) in Verviers received subsidies as part of the “As long as it takes” project. However, if we are to believe the association’s website, a graphic designer from this MAC also works in the office of the Secretary of State. It is also this collaborator who shared an Instagram status comparing the criticism against Sarah Schlitz to an offensive from the far right. In the face of the outcry caused by this Reduction to Hitler, the elected official from Liège had to apologize publicly. This apology was made after the Secretary of State was summoned by the Prime Minister.

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The Schlitz spokesperson assures us that this graphic designer no longer works for the MAC of Verviers, even if her photo is still present on the association’s website.

From a penal point of view, this double position can be subject to sanctions. “It is not prohibited to work for a subsidizing cabinet and to work in an organization which receives subsidies from this power”analyzes Marc Uyttendaele, Belgian lawyer at the Brussels Bar. “On the other hand, if we learn that the person concerned intervened in the granting of the subsidies, this can be considered a criminal offense because there is therefore a conflict of interest.”

This would corroborate the thesis circulating at the Palais de la Nation. Among the federal deputies, several affirm that Sarah Schlitz would have favored friendly associations…