From his secret safe house, where he is kept under close surveillance, the Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickeborne gave us an interview. As a reminder, he and his family were brought to safety following the thwarting of a attempted kidnapping, probably orchestrated by heavily armed drug dealers.
In your Facebook message posted three days ago, you were firm, resolute, not afraid at all. This is the role of a minister. Are the man and the father of the family as serene as that?
“I sleep well. We are doing well. In fact, with all the police around me, I have never felt so safe. My family has more difficulty getting used to. As for me, this is not the first time that I have received threats. I received them even when I was Minister of Pensions.”
Through such an offensive message, weren’t you afraid to provoke, to throw oil on the fire. ? Haven’t you been tempted to temporarily calm things down?
“Having expressed my resolution was not to provoke the traffickers. It was to reassure the population.”
How did you explain this placement in a safe house and the presence of the police to your children?
“They are three and six years old. I just told them bad guys were threatening their daddy.”
It is still a deprivation of liberty…
“It’s true. But we had already been able to experience this feeling during the Covid crisis. We were confined to four in a small apartment. So they have already seen me telecommuting too. I continue to work. I had contact with the Italian Minister of Justice for an extradition file. This Wednesday morning, I will participate in the Government Budget meeting.
However, your movements are restricted. For a minister, is such a restrictive situation tenable over time?
“Security measures are assessed hour by hour, they can evolve. That said, it is true that this threatening situation may still last. Especially as we continue our fight, we continue everything we started. In Italy, we also thought that we would never be able to bring down the mafia. Magistrates have been murdered in car bombs. And, in the end, they got results.”
In recent months, the number of drug seizures and arrests has exploded with Operation Sky ECC. A special prosecutor has been placed at the Port of Antwerp. You have signed an extradition agreement with the United Arab Emirates aimed at repatriating the barons who run the activities in Belgium from Dubai. Did you imagine that you might be attacked violently or via kidnapping? Is this a risk that you had integrated?
“I had never imagined this. Drug traffickers have actually entered a new phase. Controlling the Port of Antwerp is no longer enough for them. They want to control society. By aiming at me, it is not the minister they want to terrorize, I am a symbol, but all citizens, as terrorists do. With the aim of making us bend and lower the pressure. It’s vain to imagine that it might work. We are in a state of law, not in a narco-state.”
