Gerolf Annemans, a member of the European Parliament’s Identity and Democracy Group and who represents Belgium’s Flemish Interest party, has shared his views on the current political and epidemiological situation.
Sputnik: Belgium has had its share of coronavirus-related problems lately, with more than 31 thousand infected and more than 4 thousand deaths due to COVID-19 so far. How would you describe the current situation in your country?
Gerolf Annemans: It’s worse than elsewhere, especially in the care centres where older people live. The death rate is spectacularly high now and the situation is due to the fact that there is no political authority in Belgium. There was a government until November 2018. Then this government collapsed and we went through new elections in May 2019. A caretaker government was kept in place. They were unable to form a new government after these elections. So, the caretaker government stayed in place till the corona crisis in 2020, still without any new government.
So, we are now in a situation where we are a year and a half without a new elected government. And soon it will be two years. Now, what they did was abuse the corona crisis to force the parliament to accept the caretaker government as a real government. What I’m saying is that Belgium has no democratic government. The government is composed of ministers representing one party. Apart from one other tiny party, we are speaking of a dominance of 11 ministers of the 14 being members of the liberal party of Mr Verhofstadt and Mr Michel.
So the EU dominance is complete, because we are governed by the “EU fanatics’ minority”. You cannot hide that managing the corona crisis is actually impossible. And that’s why the numbers and the situation with managing the corona crisis is worse than anywhere else.
Sputnik: In March the EU had announced that it will spend 37 billion Euros on COVID-19 relief union-wide, with Belgium being entitled to €37 million. It’s expected that the French-speaking Wallonia region will be getting two thirds of the financial aid package, while the Dutch-speaking Flanders will receive only one third. In your opinion, how fair is that?
Gerolf Annemans: The distribution of the EU money towards Belgium was always, since many-many years – unjust and based on criteria that has to do with square meters and square kilometres rather than with population. So the Flemish majority always gets less money than the Walloon population. This is an old situation that has never been changed by any government and the EU fanatism of those who are in government obliges them to accept these constant situations.
So, with corona money to Belgium, they are following the same criteria as always, which is unjust, because the vast majority of corona victims are in Flanders, like the vast majority of the people are in Flanders. But the EU doesn’t care. And Flemish complaints are always “killed” by the fact that our Flemish politicians are cooperating with the European Union, accepting the European Union’s injustice. That is why in the May 2019 elections a tiny majority of the Flemish voted to change that.
But, as I explained, Belgium’s government is based on an old government – the caretaker government that now is almost two years without a majority. This government in Belgium has 38 seats out of 150 [in the House of Representatives]. Don’t forget that.
Sputnik: Do you think that the EU could have, or, perhaps, should increase its control over how its members are handling the COVID-19 pandemic domestically. Is there a need for more of an "EU presence" on the ground?
Gerolf Annemans: I wrote a column on that. I explained that if the European Union was absent – it could have been a good thing in principle, because the European Union is a centralized state, and if we learned one thing from this crisis, it’s that large entities – even the United States of America, go back to smaller entities. And in governing lower entities, especially in Europe, it is better not to let this be governed by the European Union. For God’s sake, please don’t, the European Union is a disaster.
And if we would have managed this – closing borders and telling people to stay home, if we managed this by the European Union – it would have been a disaster. The European Union is addicted to immigration; it’s addicted to open borders. When the corona crisis started, the only thing [President of the European Commission Ursula] von der Leyen did was plead for open borders. So, they are addicted to the wrong things. Let the European Union with their centralized state concept stay out of this.