Focus on the DUTCH SPEAKING PART of BELGIUM Press Review Weekly, Does Not Appear in July • Number 17 • 4 May – 10 May 2002
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flandersfocus on THE DUTCH SPEAKING PART OF BELGIUM press review weekly, does not appear in July • number 17 • 4 May – 10 May 2002 INTRODUCTION fla Quicker deregulation of nat- r la ndr he weekend editions of a u e s • s f u o c c number of Flemish news- o u T f s • o papers had it splashed across n n ural gas market in Flanders r f e l a d the front pages. A senseless n n d a l e f r f s u murder was only punished a • decision at the European Sum- ERIK DE LEYE • DE FINANCIEEL- f o s k Amit in Barcelona specified that ECONOMISCHE TIJD • 4 MAY u with a reprimand. The facts are from 2004 all non-domestic natur- the following. In 1998, near Schaarbeek station, al gas consumers, or at least 60% of According to the Flemish Minister Flemish electrician Patrick Mombaerts was hit on the natural gas market in volume, for Energy, Steve Stevaert (SP.A), the head with an iron bar that pierced his skull. needs to be deregulated. Belgian 430 companies are good for half of The offender, a thirteen-year-old Moroccan youth, companies that use more than 25 all natural gas consumption. Until was part of a gang that was after Mombaerts's million m3 natural gas each year the beginning of October, these and his friend's wallet. The juvenile offender spent and companies that generate elec- companies can only buy natural gas 7 months in a secure institution and after three tricity using natural gas have been from the intermunicipal natural years' supervision got away with a reprimand and able to choose where they buy gas company in their municipality 178,000 euros of compensation to be paid to the their natural gas since the begin- or directly from the Belgian natural family of the victim. The offender, who is now 16, ning of August 2000. The Flemish gas importer, Distrigas. has to pay that sum in full alone. Whilst waiting, Mombaerts's widow can appeal to the Reparation government will give all Flemish As from the beginning of 2004, all Fund for victims of acts of violence. According to businesses with a consumption in customers, including families in the juvenile court, this was an unfortunate event excess of 1 million m3 the right to Flanders, will be given the right to in the development of the boy, whose behaviour choose where they buy their natur- choose where they buy their natur- has since been exemplary at all times. Public opin- al gas as from October this year, al gas. From then on, the Flemish ion was outraged. On the very same day Justice and all private natural gas con- natural gas market will be fully Minister Verwilghen (VLD) condemned the verdict sumers as from 2004 (FF). deregulated. The Flemish govern- in Het Laatste Nieuws. After discussions with Pre- ment is following the example of mier Verhofstadt (VLD), he announced that he the electricity market. The Flem- would use his positive right of injunction to force CONTENTS ish electricity market will be en- the Public Prosecutor to appeal. According to the tirely free as from 1 July 2003. Ste- offender's solicitor, Verwilghen is acting like a bull Politics vaert says that the competition cre- in a china shop and is seeking cheap electoral suc- Flanders reacts with shock at ated by deregulation will ensure a cess. According to him, Verwilghen was not even death of Pim Fortuyn 2 better service and better prices. To aware that the offender had thrown the bar over Discussion over demonisation avoid chaos when the market his shoulder, with no intent to do harm. Further- of Fortuyn flares up 3 opens up, provisions have been more, the ‘soft’ juvenile protection law from N-VA in search of an electorate 4 made for a transitional regulation, 1965, which is aimed at protecting young people More power for municipalities 4 just as with the electricity market. from themselves and society from them, still ap- This stipulates that all natural gas plies. Verwilghen feels the law is out of date given Politics and mobility consumers who are free to choose the current state of juvenile crime and wants to in- Heinzmann puts government in will be informed at least two troduce more vigorous juvenile penile law that is a tight spot 5 months beforehand. Anyone who more effective at deterring young criminals. In his Heinzmann’s controversial does not choose another supplier proposal, he wants to introduce custodial sen- resignation 6 will automatically retain their pre- tences for young criminals up to a maximum of vious one. The Brussels and Wal- three years and lock them up in special federal ju- venile prisons. On the other hand, they would be Economy loon Regions have not yet estab- given more legal guarantees: a satisfactory trial, Good results for Agfa Gevaert 6 lished a timetable for the deregula- the right to a defence and a pre-custody ruling. tion of their natural gas markets. Francophone and Flemish magistrates' associa- Society 7 They are also much slower in open- tions were unhappy that Verwilghen was courting racist murder in Schaarbeek 6 ing up their electricity markets publicity in such a delicate matter. The PS even Cannabis use no longer legal than Flanders. claimed that Verwilghen is abusing the case for offence in private 7 political ends, more specifically to force through his juvenile penile law. I Culture Flemish-Dutch house in Brussels 7 I Frank Vandecaveye | editor in chief focus on FLANDERS • 4 May - 10 May 2002 • Number 17 2 politics FORTUYN The man heading the list that bears his name, Pim Fortuyn, a politician Flanders reacts with shock who was accused of undemocratic attitudes, has suddenly become a at death of Pim Fortuyn martyr of democracy. Is it possible to consult the voter under such cir- im Fortuyn, the populist who headlining the victory of democra- cumstances? Can that produce a Pmoved through Dutch politics cy in France, where Jean-Marie Le fair result? We don't think so. like a whirlwind, was murdered in Pen was defeated. Opinion is di- cold blood one week before the vided as to how things were al- LUC VANDER KELEN • HET LAATSTE elections. The announcement of lowed to go so far in the Nether- NIEUWS • 7 MAY the attack sent a shockwave lands (FF). through the Netherlands. This was I do not want to establish a causal the first time a politician had been link between the smear campaign murdered in this tolerant country. Opinion against everything that is far-right Outgoing Prime Minister Wim Kok and nationalist and the murder of (PvdA) called it an enormous blow Fortuyn. A murder of a politician to the democratic constitutional YVES DESMET • DE MORGEN • 7 MAY requires only a madman with a state. In recent local elections in gun. Let us not therefore be too Rotterdam, Fortuyn won 34.7% of Professor Pim was a controversial quick to judge or condemn and not the vote and was well on his way and complex figure, not to be com- blame politics as a whole. But to pulling off a stunt in the nation- pared with the one-dimensional, politicians must realise that not al elections too with his ‘Lijst Pim often highly predictable figures everyone sees their discourse as a Fortuyn’. According to one opinion who are in charge of the far-right sharp political difference of opin- poll, his party may even become elsewhere in Europe. Fortuyn was a ion and nothing more than that. the biggest in the Netherlands. He populist, not a fascist and did link Previously, their words were gener- largely owed this to what he him- intelligent and complex analyses ally limited to the privacy of Par- self called the ability to articulate of the multicultural caring society liament, today TV brings them what the man in the street was to overly simple and unsubstanti- straight into the viewers' living thinking, but also to his unparal- ated sloganesque solutions. The rooms. Weak souls who shoot leled media-friendly charisma. most bizarre thing was perhaps the politicians sometimes feel ‘called’ Fortuyn, flamboyant and openly way he seamlessly combined ultra- to do something. In a media-driven gay, breathed life into the grey, libertarian and conservative atti- world a politician must not be too anaemic world of Dutch politics, tudes, a hitherto unseen mix of quick to use big words. but had not previously been able ideas that had previously been her- to thrive in any political party. Not metically sealed in left and right in the PvdA, not in the CDA and camps … not even in ‘Leefbaar Nederland’, Fortuyn was a polemic man and where he headed the list of candi- the word was his weapon. As is dates. With his comments on proper in a democracy, where ‘backward’ Islam and his proposal words should be the only weapons to close the borders to the influx of between political opponents. Post- immigrants he made himself un- poning the elections would mean wanted. Many politicians felt he an even greater capitulation to the was dangerous and repulsive and enemies of democracy. Perhaps the compared him to politicians such elections of 15 May will turn out to as Haider, Le Pen or Vlaams Blok be a posthumous tribute to Profes- figure-head Dewinter which made sor Pim. Perhaps his party will be- him extremely angry. He did not come the biggest in the Nether- want to be pushed into the far- lands. So be it.