2023-09-09 05:08:00
Pascal Smet (Vooruit) resigned from his position in the Brussels government in June, in the turmoil of Irangate. The former Secretary of State for Urban Planning and International Relations had requested a visa to allow the arrival of an Iranian delegation, including the ultra-conservative mayor of Tehran, to the Brussels Urban Summit.
The ultra-conservative mayor of Tehran received in Brussels: “Pascal Smet has, despite our negative opinion, decided to invite him”, assures Hadja Lhabib
The affair also almost cost Federal Minister Hadja Lahbib (MR) her job, whose services issued the visas.
You have remained very discreet for two and a half months, following your resignation. How are you ?
I think it was necessary to take a step back. But I’m doing very well, I spent a few weeks in Spain. This is the first time in 25 years that I have been able to take a longer vacation, without being disturbed. The chapter, for me, is almost closed because I myself made the decision to resign. Nobody asked me to leave.
Your resignation came as a surprise (Editor’s note: he justified it by the fault of a collaborator who had authorized two Iranian mayors and a Russian mayor to stay in Brussels, at the expense of the Region). We didn’t expect it so quickly, if at all.
I know. It’s weird to say it yourself. But I’m not like the others. Integrity in politics has always been very important to me. If you lose it in politics, you don’t get it back. I have always taken my responsibilities, this is the first reason for my resignation. And I also knew that by resigning the truth would come out. And she came out: I made no mistake! I simply asked the Fed, through a three-minute phone call – just one! – to Minister Hadja Lahbib (MR) to process visa applications. Specifying that if a political delegation was not acceptable, there would at least be an administrative delegation from Tehran.
Didn’t you make a mistake by contacting the minister when a negative opinion had been given?
I did not relaunch, I simply made a single request to the minister (Editor’s note: following the negative opinion). After that, we didn’t take any further action. Subsequently, it was Minister Lahbib’s office that contacted us. And they admitted it: they were the ones who issued the visas, in the end. Basically, the request for an invitation from the Iranian delegation comes from international organizations (Editor’s note: Metropolis, which organizes one of the Brussels Urban Summit conferences), not from us. At the start, I myself had a purely Belgian reflex, saying that it was wrong to invite this delegation. International organizations told me “No, Brussels is an international, diplomatic city, like New York, Vienna, Geneva, you are obliged to receive people with whom you do not agree”. I entered into this logic. But in the Belgian context, the final and political evaluation of the opportunity to accept people is the Federal. And I am a federalist. For years I managed Asylum and Migration in Belgium (as Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons). I even saved the head of an MR minister, Antoine Duquesne.
You say you did not make a mistake but, politically, you still seriously underestimated the impact of the arrival of the ultra-conservative mayor of Tehran. Some even judged that you had been lost by your ego.
“He was lost by his ego”: the Brussels government did nothing to save Pascal Smet; the pressure is now maximum on Hadja Lahbib
It’s ridiculous to say that. I work for Brussels, not for me. The conference was a huge success. But I was a little naive. Because I have not become a cynical person, even following 20 years in politics.
If you did it once more, would you still invite this mayor?
To do it once more, I would do it differently. I would have asked the opinion of the Brussels government beforehand. And I would have been much clearer with the federal government.
Should Hadja Lahbib have resigned?
She made her choice. But people understood who made the right decision, and who didn’t. On a personal level, I am very disappointed by the way in which she handled the subject.
David Leisterh (president of the Brussels MR) was among the first to point out the arrival of the delegation from Tehran to Brussels. The MR wanted your head?
They didn’t expect me to resign, so no. I have moved on and I am not bitter.
Are you not disappointed by the lack of support from certain members of the Brussels government?
The only ones in the Brussels government who were doubtful were Écolo-Groen. Even if Alain Maron told me, followingwards, that he did not want my resignation. For the rest, the support of the PS, Rudi Vervoort, Ahmed Laaouej and Philippe Close, was enormous. Sven Gatz (Open VLD), too, and even Défi applauded me in Parliament. There was a desire on the part of some to damage me, no doubt. But if I had wanted to stay, I would have stayed. People’s reaction shows that I made the right decision. All over Brussels people stop me and thank me for all the work I have done in Mobility, Public Works and Public Spaces. They tell me: “You are not like the others, you have worked for the last 20 years, you have changed the city, you have had a huge contribution”.
Do you think you have changed Brussels?
I changed the city! Even my enemies recognize it. My political action, and the whole change towards an urban mentality that we introduced in Brussels, has borne fruit. The second consolation is that people congratulate me for my courage. And they say to me: “It’s not you, but the other person who should have resigned”. I made the right decision. Yes, I would have liked to finish my files… But Ans Peersons is there. We have been friends for 20 years and I know she will do the job well.
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Incidentally, I was a little fed up, it’s true. After 20 years in politics, I didn’t want to hang on, I’m not going to deny it, I’m not a fake ass.
What were you fed up with?
The way it works. Also from you, the media, I’ll be frank. There is always this climate of scandal, of wanting to sell with titles. It undermines people who take their work seriously. Democracy is in danger and there is a shared responsibility of the media and politicians. One thing has struck me in Brussels for 20 years. Those who take responsibility, express ambition, are attacked. And those who don’t do anything, we leave them alone. It is unfair. As a result, we have a generation of politicians who no longer make decisions. Because in the short term, when you take it, you always get hit. But in the long run, if your decision is right, people will vote for you.
Do you feel like you were attacked more than others because you wanted to change things?
Obviously. I entered politics in Brussels because I found that public debate was sclerotic, that nightlife did not exist, that it was all regarding the car. I was able to change that, I did the job with pedestrianization, car-free public squares, tram 9, etc. It wasn’t an easy fight. But look where we are. Today, justice is being done to me.
Former Brussels Secretary of State for Urban Planning, Pascal Smet resigns in June 2023 following supporting the visa request of the mayor of Tehran to attend the Brussels Urban Summit 2023 in Brussels. It will be replaced by Ans Personons. In Brussels on September 5, 2023 ©JC Guillaume
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