After the expulsion of MP Mahinur Özdemir from Belgium’s Humanist Democratic Centre (cdH) party, two Brussels officials of Turkish descent declared about their withdrawal from the party.

Municipality Council members of Sint-Joost-ten-Node region of Brussels Cevdet Yildiz and Mustafa Alperen Özdemir, the brother of Mahinur Özdemir, said they were shocked by Özdemir’s expulsion, Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws reports.

They accuse their already former party for extremely rightist leanings.  “cdH President Benoît Lutgen isn’t familiar with the social reality of our cosmopolitan European capital,” they said.  

Earlier, Mahinur Özdemir, Belgium MP of Turkish descent, was expelled from the party for publicly refusing to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.