Economist.com Cities Guide: Brussels Briefing - July 2006

News this month

A not-so-secret programme

International uproar over American counterterrorism has homed in on a banking system with headquarters on the south-east edge of Brussels. SWIFT sends messages about money transfers between 7,800 banks and financial firms in over 200 countries. In June American newspapers revealed that the company had allowed the American government to track some of these messages in order to hunt down terrorists. Several members of the European Parliament responded by calling for an inquiry, while Privacy International, a British human-rights group, filed complaints in more than 30 countries to stop the surveillance.

In Belgium, attention focused on what the government knew. Guy Verhofstadt, Belgium’s prime minister, said that June’s media reports were the first he had heard of America’s involvement with SWIFT. But Didier Reynders, the finance minister, may have known of the surveillance since April. The Belgium National Bank (BNB), the main overseer of SWIFT, admitted to knowing about the monitoring. But the BNB was quick to issue a statement that it scrutinised the company’s activities “only insofar as they are relevant to the maintenance of financial stability”, and that the American treasury’s subpoenas for data were beyond its purview. A preliminary Belgian inquiry concluded that only SWIFT’s American subsidiary had released confidential information—a sign, perhaps, of the government's eagerness to distance itself from the mêlée.

A sense of Belanging

Belgium’s political scene is heating up ahead of municipal elections on October 8th. In Flanders, the Dutch-speaking half of the country that takes Brussels as its capital, excitement is centred on Vlaams Belang, a Flemish separatist party with an anti-immigrant agenda. Mainstream parties are wary that some local candidates may breach their parties' policy of shunning Vlaams Belang in light of the separatists' growing popularity. In a poll published in late-June, support for Vlaams Belang stood at 26.6%, with the centre-right Flemish Christian Democrats and their allies a hair ahead at 26.7%. The Socialists stood at 19.9%, while lagging behind were the Flemish Liberals, the party of the prime minister, with 16.9%. Support for Vlaams Belang may be even higher than polls suggest: in the past the party has earned more votes than predicted by pre-election polls.

A focus of Vlaams Belang's campaign has been crime, which has become a key concern after a teenager was stabbed at Brussels Central Station in April and a schoolboy went on a shooting spree in Antwerp in May. On June 24th an off-duty train driver died after six immigrant youths allegedly beat him up on an Antwerp bus. Members of each party have condemned the incident, but Vlaams Belang has done so with the vigour of a party in the opposition. Filip Dewinter, Vlaams Belang's leader, said that these youths, if found guilty, should be stripped of their Belgian nationality.

Disconcerted

As Vlaams Belang gains momentum, critics of the party's anti-immigrant platform are starting to flex some muscle. Tom Barman, of the Belgian rock band dEUS, has recruited fellow musicians to perform in free, politically charged concerts in Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent and Charleroi on October 1st, one week before the municipal elections. The aim of these performances is to take a stand against intolerance and racism.

Leaders of Vlaams Belang are not happy. The party's chairman, Frank Vanhecke, issued a statement in early July claiming that musicians who take part in the concerts should not be surprised when fans “no longer want their album”. Meanwhile Filip Dewinter, the party’s Flemish leader, accused Mr Barman of an “abuse of moral authority”, arguing that the concerts are a “political meeting against our party”. Despite all this hot air, the concerts are set to take place as planned.

A grisly affair

The murder of two girls in Liège, east of Brussels, has provoked a furore over the government’s failed crime policies. Stacy Lemmens, aged seven, and her 11-year-old step-sister, Nathalie Mahy, were found dead on June 28th, only a few hundred yards from where they were last seen almost three weeks earlier. The girls had apparently been strangled shortly after their abduction, and Nathalie raped. The chief suspect is Abdallah Ait-Oud, a 38-year-old seen near the scene of the crime.

During the 19-day search for the girls, the media dug up details of their troubled family life and Mr Ait-Oud’s prior conviction for rape of a minor. The story created such a frenzy that the prime minister himself expressed his condolences on national television when the bodies were found. But the affair is not over: opposition politicians are questioning why it took so long for police to find the bodies and why Mr Ait-Oud was released after his previous conviction. The episode, they argue, proves the failure of reforms introduced after the capture of Marc Dutroux, a notorious child rapist and murderer, whose crimes led to a crisis of confidence in the police and judiciary.

Tsk tsk

Belgium is in trouble with the European Commission for setting minimum retail prices for cigarettes. In late June the commission warned Belgium that the practice distorts competition and breaks a European Union law that lets manufacturers set the price of their products. Belgium’s government has two months to respond or else face the European Court of Justice. A similar case has been launched against France.

Belgium introduced minimum prices in 2005, in part to reduce tobacco consumption and combat cigarette sales on the black market. But according to the commission, setting a minimum price protects cigarette manufacturers' profit margins. Raising taxes and excise duties—which account for 75% of the cost of a pack of cigarettes in Belgium—would help deter smokers without hampering competition. Belgian politicians have yet to respond to the commission's scolding. Cigarettes in Belgium, though not as cheap as those in Luxembourg, are less costly than in France, the Netherlands or Germany.

Catch if you can

July 2006

Bruegel imagined and Bruegel in prints

Until August 26th 2006

Pieter Bruegel the Elder is one of Belgium’s most famous sons, but few curators can afford to gather his works, scattered in collections around the world. In a creative solution to this quandary, the Royal Library in Brussels has decided to exhibit life-sized reproductions of all of his paintings, as well as an array of prints based on his drawings. These exhibitions are part of a four-month festival that includes walking tours, concerts and lectures at nearby venues.

The Royal Library, Mont des Arts. Tel: +32 (0)2 519 5398. Open: Mon-Sat, 10am-5pm. More details of the festival are available on this website.

More from the Brussels cultural calendar