Belgian Party Holds Festival to Honour President Ho Chi Minh

At the event. Photo: VNA

The Vietnamese Embassy in Belgium has collaborated with the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB) to hold a series of activities in honour of late President Ho Chi Minh at the party’s recent Manifesta (Solidarity) festival in Ostend, VNA reported.

The event was an opportunity for people across Belgium, whether they are from Flamish (Dutch), Wallonia (French) or Brussels, to raise solidarity and discuss building a future world better. Despite the heavy rain and wind, the festival still attracted large crowds.

A highlight of the series was the launch of a book featuring 48 articles by the late President, which was collected and compiled by Indian historian Vijay Prashad. The book has so far been published in English, French, and Dutch.

A seminar on the late President’s life and career also took place, during which Phan Ngoc Lan, a Vietnamese expat in Belgium, told anecdotes about the Vietnamese hero of national liberation and great man of culture.

The event saw the attendance of representatives of the embassies of Laos, Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua in Belgium and the European Union (EU) as well as of a number of workers’ parties in Europe.

Lan told the VNA’s correspondents that he wants to disseminate the great value of Ho Chi Minh’s morality, culture and ideology to peace-loving international friends.

Patricia Parga, a Belgian of Chilean origin, expressed that hearing about President Ho Chi Minh, she understood more about him, about President Ho Chi Minh’s ideals of eliminating the exploiting class, bringing about independence, freedom, happiness for the Vietnamese people and always wishes for peace for the world.

Holding a book about President Ho Chi Minh, Françoise, a resident of Wallonia, said she knew very little about Vietnam. Listening to Uncle Ho’s talk, she understood somewhat about the beloved President of the Vietnamese people. The book will help her better understand the background, career and contributions of President Ho Chi Minh to Vietnam, as well as to the world.

As a participant in compiling a book about Uncle Ho in French, Dominique Meeùs, a member of the PTB Party, felt extremely proud. “I was so moved by the wonderful writing that really brought me to tears,” said Meeùs.

During the two-day course of the festival on September 17 and 18, the Vietnamese embassy also showcased photos on Vietnam’s liberation and construction causes and introduced the nation’s culture, cuisine, tourism.

This year, the festival attracted nearly 20,000 visitors.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Belgium Nguyen Van Thao presents a book about late President Ho Chi Minh to a foreign reader at Manifesta 2022. Photo: VNA

A puppet show by Vietnamese artists at the event. Photo: VNA

On June 5, 1911, from Nha Rong Wharf of Sai Gon, now HCM City, Ho Chi Minh, known in those days as Nguyen Tat Thanh, boarded ship Admiral Latouche Treville, beginning his journey to seek ways for national salvation.

Thirty years later, he returned to Vietnam to lead the Vietnamese revolution which successfully conducted the August Revolution in 1945 and founded the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, now the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.