Whistle Blown on Eurovision Singer Linked to Neo-nazis

Belgium's participation in this year's Eurovision song contest ignited controversy last night when the state security service accused a singer of having links with the country's neo-Nazi movement.

Anxious to spare the nation's blushes, the Sûreté de l'Etat took the highly unusual step of divulging the contents of its files on Soetkin Collier, 25, a singer in Urban Trad, the band performing Belgium's entry.

Branding her a "far-right militant with a strong belief in Flemish nationalism", the security service warned the state broadcaster and Eurovision selector, RTBF, that Collier had a dark past.

So concerned was the security service that it also wrote to the prime minister, the justice ministry and the ministry of audiovisual and cultural affairs. Most seriously, it alleged that Collier had attended a commemorative event in honour of the Nazi leader Rudolf Hess in Antwerp in 1996 and that she had belonged to various far-right groups.

It also noted with concern that she had participated in militant actions aimed at denigrating French-speaking culture and mocking the first world war, and that her parents used to run a "far-right cafe" frequented by Belgian fascists.

Collier does not deny the allegations but insists she should not be punished for her distant past. She says she no longer has any sympathy for the far right and is no longer politically active.

However, the embarrassed Belgian organisers said they had no idea of Collier's past when Urban Trad was chosen for the Eurovision contest.

Politicians are piling pressure on RTBF to drop the singer. "If these facts are confirmed we have to act," Richard Miller, the minister in charge of French-speaking audiovisual culture, told the daily newspaper La Dernière Heure. "We can't let a singer with such opinions represent our country."

RTBF says it is waiting for "supplementary information" about the case before it takes a final decision on Collier's participation in the contest which takes place on May 24 in Latvia.