2023-12-21 17:12:00
It is difficult to assess the impact that this spy scandal will have on the results of Vlaams Belang (VB) in the next elections which will take place in less than six months. The Flemish far right might suffer from its image being tarnished by extraordinary news.
On Thursday followingnoon, a twist opened the plenary meeting of the Chamber: federal deputy Steven Creyelman (VB) resigned from the presidency of the Military Purchasing Committee, which examines files classified as “defense secrets”. He had not sufficiently informed his party and its president, Tom Van Grieken, of the contacts he had with his brother in connection with China, according to the Belang press release. In front of the parliamentarians, the head of the VB group in the House, Barbara Pas, delivered the final stab by evoking a “break of trust” with the MP.
Dries Van Langenhove (Vlaams Belang) resigned from office
A brother under Chinese influence
As a reminder, former senator Frank Creyelman (VB), Steven’s brother, was bought by a Chinese spy to exercise his influence for the benefit of Beijing. This information was revealed last week by several international media. In particular, Frank Creyelman repeatedly informed a contact at the Chinese Ministry of State Security that he would consult his brother, Steven Creyelman, a federal deputy. This was the case, for example, when the secret agent asked in March 2021 to lobby for the European Union and China to mutually recognize their Covid vaccination passports.
On Tuesday, the conference of presidents of the assembly urgently requested from State Security a report on the influence that Frank Creyelman and his Chinese contact might have had on Steven Creyelman. A letter was sent to Committee R, the monitoring body of the intelligence services. The rest of the file will be examined within the monitoring commission of Committee R.
Diplomatic consequences
On the political level, there will also be diplomatic consequences, although it is likely that Belgium will remain cautious towards China in order to preserve its economic interests. Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Open VLD), however, declared in the House that “it is not possible for our democratic system to be manipulated in this way, we do not accept this from a power foreign”. The head of the Belgian government assured that he will convey this message to Chinese political leaders. He will indeed meet President Xi in January.
If this affair were to escalate or drag on, from revelation to revelation, it is the normalization strategy of Vlaams Belang which would be undermined. Tom Van Grieken’s party wants to smooth out its image in order to be able, one day or another, to come to power by entering into a government coalition with other parties. Like the National Rally in France, the VB is trying to forget its dubious DNA. With difficulty. Within the Flemish team, former glories such as Filip Dewinter are weighing down this movement. The latter is also the subject of suspicion over troubled relations that he maintains with the Chinese regime and Putin’s Russia.
Frank Creyelman was not the only one to inform on Chinese spies: another member of Vlaams Belang helped a spy establish himself in Belgium
The rivalry with the N-VA
Promised for an electoral triumph by all the polls, the VB risks seeing the respectable image to which it aspires become blurred. Voters might turn away from a party judged to be under foreign influence. Beyond the results at the polls, the corruption of certain VB elected officials by China might also cool those who, in the N-VA, hope for a nationalist “Big evening” during the June 9 election.
An N-VA/Vlaams Belang coalition might indeed obtain a majority in the north of the country. But will Bart De Wever’s party have an interest in giving the keys to Flemish democracy to far-right proxies suspected of defending the interests of a communist dictatorship? In an interview at the beginning of December, the president of the N-VA estimated that collaboration with Vlaams Belang would not greatly benefit his party.
Chinese influence, which projects a halo of doubt around Belang, should on the contrary push the N-VA to relentlessly attack its electoral rival until the elections in order to weaken it as much as possible. The phenomenon is well known: the great successes of the N-VA were obtained thanks to the siphoning of votes from the VB… And Bart De Wever knows this well.
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