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Sometimes, being a Belgian living abroad is not easy. Especially when my foreign friends over here are asking questions about the very peculiar Belgian political situation. It seems a never ending story, but over and over again, I have to explain to them what kind of actions our incapable Belgian politicians are taking while trying to run my home country. I am not a lawyer, and I have never studied the law very well, but I know a little bit about it. The least thing I expect is that people running a country know the law as well. And if not, they should be surrounded by very capable lawyers who’s job it is to protect these politicians against themselves.

Since two days, Belgium is again in crisis. Or should I say… the crisis has become worse? Since the June 2007 elections, Belgium has seen the worst crisis in its history. And since March of this year, Belgium has the most incapable Prime Minister in its history as well. Yves Leterme went to the elections with one slogan: “Who believes these people?” Giving critics on his opponent and his liberal party.

Crembo, our Minister of Defense has been very quiet over the last couple of weeks, since he was spotted being drunk in the New York bar and since he was overwhelmed by reactions after having called bloggers as being dangerous species. Last week, the Minister of Justice has put himself above the law, while he had to cover up mistakes that had been made by people working in jail. A decision the whole country could approve of. But yes, a little against the law. What had happened?

A young female police officer was killed in December last year in a gunfight while doing her job. A couple of weeks later, the murderers were arrested and have been in jail since then. One of these killers had appealed against a court’s decision to keep him in jail, and due to some incredible mistake, these papers were lost! Officially, he had to be released out of prison, he was to become a free man again. Fortunately, the Justice Department found another reason to keep this gangster in jail. If he had been freed, it would have been just another scandal on top of all the rest.

This week however, in the Fortis saga - the biggest Belgian bank that was sold by the government to the Dutch and the French, the goverment interfeared with the Justice department and tried to influence the court to have a verdict in its favor. The court overruled these interventions, the press found out, the crisis became worse, and normally, Yves Leterme should resign from his office. That’s the normal thing to do as Prime Minister.

Not in Belgium however! While I had expected to see him resign from his office, he simply continues. As if nothing has happened.

I can only ask one question: “Who believes Yves Leterme?”

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The story continues. Since Pieter De Crem, Belgium’s Minister of Defense has been spotted in a New York bar while being drunk (click here to read my first post about him), and after his explanation in Belgian parliament where he declared bloggers as being dangerous species, he has not been out of the press in Belgium and the Netherlands. Even over here in Southern Portugal, my friends are asking me what’s happening with Belgian politics and their politicians. The biggest Belgian political crisis as far as I can remember in the 48 years of my existence having just ended in the beginning of this year (not that the Belgian government is doing a great job in leading the country), I now have to explain to my friends in Portugal how on earth it is possible that politicians who are lying about their behaviour are getting away with it.

I tell them that Crembo has made a couple of mistakes in his communication. He could have solved it in such a simple matter, had he taken some lessons from former and much more capable politicians. He could have taken a lesson from the late French President François Mitterrand (1916-1996) who only had to use two simple words to end the critics when it became publicly known that he had a daughter outside his marriage: “Et alors?”. Translated into English: “So What?”. These two words just did it!

Crembo could have said exactly the same thing in Dutch, after having been accused of the fact that he was drunk: “En dan?”. Or even in “Aalters”, the local language of the town in which he succeeded his father as mayor (believe me, I speak and understand “Aalters” as well - I was born over there!): “En tons?”.

Now don’t get me wrong. As I wrote a couple of days ago, it is not the fact that he was drunk in New York that causes the problems. He lied about the telephone call to the owner of the bar, causing directly or indirectly the fact that the Dutch lady lost her job. And he was not honest about his agenda with the meetings he was supposed to be having in New York. Though he once said that the public has the right to know the truth!

Having been professionally involved in training “Communication Skills” myself, he could have called me. Or I could at least have forwarded him to a couple of my former collegues (we have always remained good friends since I left the company) who still are experts in communication. It would have saved Crembo a lot of trouble.

On the other hand, it’s good amusement to see how his predecessor calls him “an asshole” as you can see in the clip below. André Flahaut, while being interviewed by the Belgian press agency “Belga” and broadcasted on Belgian television (RTBF) has never been a close friend of Crembo. Flahaut literally says: “Somebody who does and says things without thinking about them, is an asshole. I indeed said this, and I still believe this.”

As long as Flahaut was the Minister of Defense, Pieter De Crem was attacking Flahaut constantly!

It is a shame that politicians are acting like little children instead of doing their job the way they should be doing it. In private companies, this kind of behaviour is not accepted at all. I call this: “Kindergarten mentality”.

But apparently, politicians, just like bankers, are simply getting away with it…

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The Belgian Minister of Defense, Pieter De Crem, also widely known as “Crembo”, has been in the news over the past couple of weeks. During a visit to the United States earlier this month, obviously with a whole delegation of his department, he visited a bar in New York. He was spotted by a Dutch woman who was working in that bar. According to her, the minister was very drunk, and one of his collaborators told her they had come to New York for a couple of meetings with people from the United Nations. Unfortunately, these meetings had been canceled a couple of days earlier because these U.N.-guys were having other meetings to attend in Geneva, Switserland, but the Belgians had decided to go to New York anyway, because it was so “quite” in Brussels and some of the members of the delegation had never been to the Big Apple before.

So Nathalie Lubbe Bakker, the Dutch lady, wrote about this the next day on her weblog. Somehow, the Belgian press found out, they wrote about it, the department of defense denied the story and called it gossip, collaborators of Crembo called the owner of the bar in New York, and Nathalie Lubbe Bakker was fired the next day she came to work.

Earlier this week, Pieter De Crem was invited to come to the Belgian parliament to tell the members of parliament what had really happened in New York. He used his time in parliament to make a pretty special statement, which has been translated into English by me to the best of my abilities: “I want to use this non-event to point to a dangerous fact of the society we live in today. We are living in a time-era where everybody can post anything he or she wants on a blog, without taking any responsability. This is even worse than gossip.” He then pleaded to the other members of parliament: “Together with you, collegues, I must admit that it is almost impossible to defend ourselves against this. Dear collegues, dear collegues of the parliament, collegues of the government, we are all potential victims. I urge you to think about this.”

I don’t want to talk about the fact that this minister has been drunk in New York. I got drunk in New York once as well. After all, it’s a wonderful city with lots of opportunities to get drunk. But I used MY money to fly to New York, and I paid ALL my expenses myself, with MY money. While I am sure that Crembo - he got that nickname because he’s sending Belgian soldiers to the war which can’t be won in Afghanistan - is making much more money than I am, he uses tax-money to fly all around the world with his collaborators.

I can tell you Mr. Minister, don’t bother to have someone of your department call my boss. I am the boss over here, and I have the right to say or write whatever I want. This phenomenon is commenly known as Freedom of Speech.

It is a real shame that so-called leaders of a country do need to shoot the messenger to cover up their own mistakes.

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