The Belgian political course this year has started ahead of schedule with an extraordinary meeting of the Federal Parliament. The reason has not been the upsurge in crime in Antwerp, the reception of refugees, or the insecurity in Brussels train stations, to mention some of the more immediate crises facing Belgium, but much more embarrassing facts. The press in the country of the Manneken Pis has dubbed the scandal the pipigate.
The confusing sequence of events and explanations that followed the release of images from Justice Minister Vincent van Quickenborne's 50th birthday party, in which several men are seen urinating on a police van parked next to his house his in Kortrijk, forced the Flemish liberal politician this week to appear before the Justice Commission to clarify what happened on the night of August 14 to 15.
It was the Flemish public television, VRT, that revealed the existence of the images, now in the possession of the Prosecutor's Office. The minister reacted to the news indignantly and assured that he knew nothing about it. But the publication, days later, of another video, in which Van himself is seen on the street, next to the car, looking at his mobile and leaning in a way that some interpret as an imitation of the gesture to urinate, cast doubt on the veracity of his words.
"I would like to melt away from the shame I feel," assured Van to the deputies on Thursday. "It seems surreal to have to describe every minute of that night. But it is what they ask of me and I will do it", he said, and warned that he stood by what he did in the version of events and that he would not allow himself to be "crucified in public". The deputies waited expectantly for the explanations. The incident has only further strained his relations with the police. The context of the surveillance of the minister is not a minor detail to understand the relevance that the case has had: the police discovered a year ago that there were plans to kidnap him and Van and his family have spent seasons confined in a place secret
The minister assured the deputies that he found out from the press about the actions of his guests and took advantage of the appearance to apologize to the police for the "disgusting" and "inadmissible" behavior. There are records of three urinations: one at 8:39 p.m., one at 10:05 p.m., and one at midnight. In addition to urinating on the van and recording themselves with their mobile phones while they were perpetrating the deed, they also went inside and took selfies. There were apparently no officers inside the vehicle and the doors were not locked.
The minister also explained that all his friends went to the party dressed in white because he asked them to, because of the "contestant" character, since in reality they are all fans of heavy metal music. The detail is important, according to the minister, to understand another video that security cameras recorded at four in the morning in which he is seen chatting with a man in the street. It was late and he doesn't remember exactly what he was doing at the time, but his friend thinks he "acted like he was playing the guitar". The "gesture" can be "misleading", he admitted this week in another surreal moment of the pipigate, when Van went on television with images recorded by his own cameras to explain his movements. He also took a selfie with a friend next to the car, but only approached it to activate the safety button, he claims. According to him, the video in question does not show that he was aware of his friends' urinary excursions and therefore that he lied.
"He does not convey the serenity that should be expected from you", reproached Christoph D'Haese, from the Flemish opposition party N-VA. A police union and the ultra-right party Vlaams Belang have asked for his resignation, but the explanations, for the time being, have satisfied the members of the Government, all embarrassed by the image that the scandal gives the country.
