Prime Minister Alexander De Croo is now managing a military, humanitarian, energy and economic crisis. All the highest state services are mobilized. For the first time, for 72 hours, a television team was able to follow the Prime Minister in all these crisis meetings. This evening, RTL INFO brings you into the most secret meetings of the moment: “72 hours of crisis with the Prime Minister”.
Tuesday 08 March 2022. 13th day of war.
The Prime Minister has a videoconference meeting with several European leaders. The European Council may be at the end of the street a few hundred meters away, but the connection is bad. “Normally it works, but when you’re here it doesn’t“, he lets go ironically. Basically, the summit of Versailles should be devoted to the new European growth model. “In a few days, we had to completely change the agenda of this summit”informed Alexander De Croo by videoconference to Charles Michel, former Prime Minister.
The preparatory meeting takes place behind closed doors. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister’s advisers are monitoring developments minute by minute. The contacts follow one another. Alexander De Croo is now online: the Georgian Prime Minister is on the line. His country has just applied to join the European Union. The Georgian comes to the news. “The membership procedure will take 10 to 15 years. But it’s too long for you to show that you are part of the family.“, explains our Prime Minister to him. At our microphone, he says he has not had contact with Vladimir Putin.
Wednesday. 14th day of war.
A national security council is held at the Palais d’Egmont. The key State services must assess the threat to the military abroad and to Belgium. Police. Army. Cybersecurity. Information… They are all there to inform the government. Among them, Jaak Raes. He has been head of State Security for eight years. The man in the shadows is usually very discreet. “You have to be careful,” he said in the face of the threat of Russian eavesdropping. For Jaak Raes, “there are many Russian spies” on our soil: “Most of them are not known as spies, but as members of the embassy.” Radio silence on the information that was shared.
But immediately following the national security council, the government meets in a select committee. Defence, energy, refugees: so many items on the agenda as Belgium finds itself on the list of hostile countries drawn up by Vladimir Putin. Sophie Wilmès, Minister of Foreign Affairs: “From the moment we have decided on very significant sanctions once morest Russia, the response will most likely be counter-sanctions. We know it and we are preparing for it.”
In times of crisis, communication is key. It is 5 p.m., the day before the summit. The Prime Minister has an appointment with journalists from the written press. Two hours of interviews with French and Dutch daily newspapers. So much for ON communication. But there is another communication, more discreet, which is called the OFF. Direction the Lambermont, the official residence of the Prime Minister. Around the table, around twenty journalists who are used to following European news. Normally, no microphones or cameras are allowed.
“Sometimes there are decades when not much happens and weeks when there is as much happening as in two decades”, launches the Prime Minister. A quotation borrowed from Lenin in the mouth of the liberal. An exchange far removed from the exercise of the interview.
“It’s very useful,” said Philippe Régnier, journalist for Le Soir newspaper. “We are not supposed to quote the source that speaks to us. The source is much freer to speak to us in a less diplomatic way.”
On this day, a new week of war begins in Ukraine. The third.
In few hours: Versailles. In the meantime, an emergency: managing the flow of Ukrainians arriving in Belgium. How much ? How? ‘Or’ What ? Where ? The press is waiting for answers. The Prime Minister summoned the Minister-Presidents of the Regions. Among them, only one has already met Vladimir Putin: Elio Di Rupo. “I met him several times. He has always been silent. He is someone who remains very introverted when he is with heads of state and government.”
Midnight station. Alexander De Croo boards the Thalys with the President of the European Commission. Direction Versailles. Where Europe has a date with history. “JI still hear many of my colleagues who also believe that this is a decisive moment.”
A new Europe is on the way. To go where ? It is yet to be written.
