Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel has rejected accusations that Belgium is Europe’s weakest link in the fight against terror.
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Belgium’s prime minister sought to reassure tourists, businesspeople and the Belgians themselves that Brussels is safe again after last month’s terrorist attacks that killed 32 people. We’ve been working with them for the past months.
He also referred to the 9/11 attacks on the United States, saying it took a decade to find the mastermind behind them even “with all the police in the world searching”.
“I don’t accept this idea of a very weak country”.
Belgium has succeeded in preventing many attacks, he said, and in 2015 alone successfully prosecuted scores of people on terrorism-related charges. “At the European table, we are systematically the most determined to advance a strategy of increased cooperation”. The attacks in Brussels were evidence by definition, he said, of “failure” but he noted his government’s plans to spend more on security and change laws to enhance the authorities’ capabilities. We should do that, too, in Belgium.
The Belgian prime minister also highlighted the country’s success in thwarting a jihadist plot to attack police personnel in the eastern city of Verviers.
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Michel appeared before a group of largely foreign journalists to deliver what he called the “key message” that following the widespread disruption caused by the March 22 suicide bombings at Brussels Airport and in the capital’s subway, “today we return to normal life in Brussels and Belgium”. Police and troops would remain on the streets, however, and the metro would continue to run a limited service, with half its stations shut, into next week.
