Following the murder of British student Henry Nowak and the widely criticised police response at the scene, Flemish MEP Tom Vandendriessche (Vlaams Belang/Patriots) has demanded a fundamental revision of the EU’s Anti-Racism Strategy, arguing that it is ideologically unbalanced and systematically disadvantages native Europeans.
Distressing bodycam footage from Hampshire Police showed officers handcuffing the fatally stabbed 18-year-old while he lay bleeding on the ground, after his attacker claimed he had been the victim of a racist attack.
Vandendriessche believes this was no isolated failure but the logical outcome of a prevailing doctrine that automatically grants higher credibility to certain groups.
In a reaction to Brussels Signal, the MEP said: “The EU Anti-Racism Strategy does not fight racism. It codifies it. It names five protected groups and leaves white Europeans without recognition as potential victims. Henry Nowak died in a country where that logic had taken hold. This Commission is now importing it into all 27 Member States.”
Vandendriessche points out that the EU’s Anti-Racism Strategy 2026–2030 explicitly highlights anti-Black racism, antigypsyism, antisemitism, anti-Asian racism, and anti-Muslim hatred, while making no mention of anti-white racism or discrimination against native Europeans.
He argues this creates an institutional asymmetry that leads to weaponised racism accusations and unequal treatment before the law with a “fixed script”.
The MEP acknowledges that the United Kingdom is not an EU member state, but insists the underlying ideology is the same one the European Commission is now embedding across the Union through training programmes, policing guidelines, and funding conditions.
In a formal written question to the European Commission — which is open for co-signature by other MEPs — Vandendriessche is pressing for answers on whether the current strategy produces biased outcomes.
He asks what empirical evidence exists that EU-supported anti-racism training does not create credibility presumptions based on skin colour, whether the Commission will include safeguards against weaponised racism accusations in its planned policing compendium, and whether it will revise the Anti-Racism Strategy 2026–2030 to guarantee equal protection for all citizens regardless of skin colour.
The European Commission’s official strategy frames racism as a structural issue requiring targeted action for specific groups and maintains that the plan combats “racism in all its forms”.
Critics like Vandendriessche argue that in practice, the document and its implementation reveal a clear hierarchy of victimhood that leaves native Europeans unprotected, with potentially lethal consequences when this mindset influences police conduct on the ground.
Today in the UK, the Nowak case continues to trigger significant public backlash.
Following the release of the bodycam footage and the sentencing of killer Vickrum Digwa to life imprisonment with a minimum of 21 years, protests erupted in Southampton.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the footage of the police bodycam as “sickening” and acknowledged serious questions about how racism accusations influenced police decision-making.
The controversy has further intensified debates over “two-tier policing” and the role of race in British law enforcement, with heated exchanges in the British Parliament.
Distressing body-worn camera footage released by Hampshire Police has sparked widespread outrage after showing officers completely misreading the situation and ignoring pleas by the fatally wounded Henry Nowak for help. https://t.co/lODGUEILWm
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) June 2, 2026
