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Angry exchanges in chamber over wartime collaboration
The opening session of the new Belgian parliament was overshadowed by criticism of two N-VA members of the Michel government.
Interior minister Jan Jambon (pictured) was strongly criticised by opposition MPs for an interview this week in which he said that wartime collaboration with the Nazis was “wrong” but that he could see that collaborators “had their reasons” for their actions.
Meanwhile, state secretary Theo Francken found himself under scrutiny for attending a 90th birthday party in honour of the Flemish nationalist collaborator Bob Maes.
Laurette Onkelinx of the French-speaking socialists PS described Maes as a “Nazi collaborator” and demanded an explanation “from the prime minister or the two ministers”.
The speaker, Siegfried Bracke, also of N-VA, refused to allow a debate on the issue “because the question had not been tabled”. This led to angry exchanges in the chamber while prime minister Charles Michel was trying to set out his government’s programme.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Bracke said afterwards.
Photo: De Standaard
Comments
Since Onkelinx, famous for her jumping up-and-down hysterics at the best of times, chooses to go this far back in time to make her 'point' : how come she left out a certain Degrelle and his Walloon 'collaborator' friends, who founded Rexism and joined the Waffen SS, to the point of wearing the SS uniform? After World War II, Degrelle & Co turned prominent figures in all sorts of fascist movements too, N.B.
Get your sums sorted out, Laurette! - By the way: pointing the finger so much, the way you do, is ...rude!
Well, anyone would have reasons for their actions, wouldn't they ? The people who blew up 3 towers on 9/11 had their reasons too. People like Degrelle or his supporters never entered a government. And maybe pointing the finger is rude and is not the best way to interact, but should that obliterate the fact that attending a collaborator's birthday is wrong, particularly when you are in a prominent political position ? That does indicate that collaboration was not sooo wrong after all, since there were "reasons", and the whole thing can be forgotten as a mere incident... Not the kind of people I see fit for ruling a democratic country, I'm afraid to say... :-(
@Ulrixco - We cannot go on moaning about the errors of the past whether or not at government level. “Learn from your mistakes” , as my dear old grandfather used to say "and move on". As to Onkelinx : a truly feisty and tiresome character, sorry folks... Screams and shouts about “uniting the country” for one thing, and is the first to engineer the opposite. Let’s have some peace, I say…Relax ! WWI and II are over after all (and about time to…)
Come to think of it: if Madame "nous francophones" wasn't on about "collaborators" (like Degrelle) and their particular boots, maybe she looked a little further back in time, and the boots of Napoleon's soldiers?? They certainly were in government then; ask any "Francophone" who "l'Empereur" was and he'll tell you. There even are "Marcheurs de Napoleon" in Wallonia now. Everything is fair in love and war, as the saying goes, some things staying fairer (and obvious) than others - depending on your allegiance!