Back from vacation, the politician gave an interview to Het Nieuwsblad in which he returned to the violent clashes currently taking place in Antwerp: “The violence we are witnessing is not primarily intended to make innocent victims. It This is targeted violence by criminals once morest other criminals,” he said. “Obviously, even if the violence is not directed once morest you or your children, you might still be a victim of it,” acknowledged the mayor of the Flemish city.
“Cocaine is present absolutely everywhere. And yes, also in my party but also among members of the security forces. I find it worrying. I constantly have to fire police officers because they have been caught consuming cocaine. drugs”, confessed Bart De Wever.
One of the solutions proposed by the inhabitants would be to expel the individuals targeted by the attacks, so as to empty the city of its criminals. A practice already used in the Netherlands. “The law does not allow it”, detailed Bart De Wever to our colleagues from Het Nieuwsblad. “I have already tried to do so in the past, but the Council of State had canceled the decision. I have been asking for a long time to grant more powers to the mayors so that they can fight organized crime effectively. ” According to him, opposition to the federal government would essentially come from the francophone side . He quoted in particular Georges-Louis Bouchez, president of the MR: “As if we were incapable, in a city like Antwerp, of taking appropriate administrative measures”, he reviled. “Bouchez’s statements above all demonstrate a total lack of experience in the governance of a large city and a lack of knowledge of the reality of organized crime.”
“We don’t even fight…”
Moreover, Bart De Wever felt that nothing had really been done to effectively combat this drug-related violence in Belgium: “When Mark Demesmaeker, the big boss of the police, says: ‘the federal police are failing , we’re bankrupt”. Nobody reacts to this. Thirty attacks in one summer in Antwerp? Have you heard the Prime Minister? I hear people say that the war on drugs is not working but we are not even fighting not,” he blasted.
Yet the N-VA president refused to throw in the towel and legalize drugs: “Every time there is an outburst of violence, there are opinion pieces regarding it. would act as the ‘solution to the problem’. I will continue to fight even if we will never win the war.”