Belgian deputy premier and federal social affairs and health minister Frank Vandenbroucke (Flemish socialist Vooruit - pictured right) has pledged his continued support to Vooruit leader Conner Rousseau (on the left) in his row with Bill White, the US ambassador in Belgium. In a video posted on social media, Rousseau compared Trump's policies to practices in Nazi Germany, much to the anger of the American ambassador in Belgium.
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Frank Vandenbroucke backs Vooruit leader Conner Rousseau: ‘Historians confirm what he said about Trump’
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‘Historians have already made a similar analysis of what is happening now with the immigration service ICE,’ Vandenbroucke told TV viewing Flanders.
Vandenbroucke also looks back on his meeting with the American ambassador. Bill White called him rude because the minister did not want to be photographed with him. Vandenbroucke, on the other hand, believes that White crossed several lines.
‘We are experiencing something remarkable here’
On VRT Radio this morning, Vandenbroucke responded once again to the escalating row with the American ambassador, though he did not specifically address White's post yesterday.
According to Vandenbroucke, we are currently experiencing ‘something remarkable’. The deputy premier also referred to interviews White gave last weekend to dailies Het Nieuwsblad and De Tijd, saying that White, as a diplomat, ‘crossed several red lines’ in his pronouncements there. Vandenbroucke put forward three points that he considers very important.
‘In Europe, we live in democracies, you have the right to a political opinion. The ambassador of another country has no say in that.’ Vandenbroucke is referring to the row that arose between White and Vooruit leader Conner Rousseau after Rousseau made a comparison between 30s German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and today’s US President Donald J. Trump on social media.
‘Judges are independent here,’ Vandenbroucke continues. ‘A minister cannot interfere in that. That is not how it works. And an American ambassador cannot ask our government to halt a judicial investigation either.’
Yet that is precisely what happened. A week ago, the ambassador called on the Belgian government to stop the ‘ridiculous and anti-Semitic persecution of three Jewish circumcisers in Antwerp’. In September 2024, the Antwerp public prosecutor's office opened an investigation into possible illegal circumcisions within the Jewish community in Antwerp.
As a third point, Vandenbroucke argues that we live in a social welfare state in Belgium. ‘The American government has launched a systematic attack on our model and the way we deal with medicines and healthcare.’