{"id":151227,"date":"2020-09-04T22:20:08","date_gmt":"2020-09-04T22:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bnreport.com\/belgiums-new-clash-over-coronavirus-response\/"},"modified":"2020-09-04T22:20:08","modified_gmt":"2020-09-04T22:20:08","slug":"belgiums-new-clash-over-coronavirus-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bnreport.com\/en\/belgiums-new-clash-over-coronavirus-response\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgiums new clash over coronavirus response"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Belgiums feuding political tribes have another topic to disagree about: a second coronavirus wave.<\/p>\n<p>The discord between French-speaking Wallonia and Dutch-speaking Flanders goes beyond the merits of each governments response to the virus, claims Rudi Vervoort, the premier of the Brussels region.<\/p>\n<p>Vervoort told POLITICO that what he described as fear-mongering in Flemish media about a second spike of the virus in Brussels is motivated by \u201ca political project\u201d to further alienate right-leaning Flanders from left-leaning Wallonia.<\/p>\n<p>The Flemish nationalist party N-VA, for example, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/de_NVA\/status\/1298139693108924416?s=20\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">has claimed<\/a> the Brussels government \u201cwaited to respond until the numbers were red.\u201d Vervoort rejects that charge and says such attacks are part of a long-term objective by Flemish nationalists and their supporters in the press to split Belgium.<\/p>\n<p>Thus far, neither Flanders nor Brussels has covered itself in glory in terms of keeping a lid on cases during the long summer break. Rising numbers in Belgium have spooked a handful of European countries \u2014 including the U.K. and Germany \u2014 into imposing extra restrictions on travelers from the country or regions of it.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n\u201cAt the peak of the crisis, we went to the limit of what is legally possible\u201d \u2014 <em>Rudi Vervoort, premier of the Brussels region<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But Vervoort, a member of the Francophone Socialist Party (PS), counters that Brussels has fared better than second city Antwerp, a stronghold of the N-VA, where the virus made its fiercest comeback in late July.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAntwerp went up to 200 infections per 100,000 people and [Brussels is now around] 73, 74, but they already speak about a second wave,\u201d he said in an interview conducted last week.<\/p>\n<h3>Pandemic measures<\/h3>\n<p>The summer surge prompted the Brussels government to impose a mask requirement in public spaces across the entire region on August 12. That measure, Vervoort <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/brussels-to-keep-face-mask-rule-at-least-until-mid-sept\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a>, will remain compulsory until at least mid-September to evaluate the effect of peoples return from holidays and the reopening of schools.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe needed a gesture that functioned as a barrier, a way for people to keep a distance,\u201d Vervoort said. \u201cIt is also simple and coherent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But to prevent cases running out of control, test and trace capacity is also crucial, he added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday were at almost 14,000 tests per week,\u201d Vervoort said, adding that Brussels is now the area in Belgium with most tests per 100,000 inhabitants.<\/p>\n<p>The tracing, Vervoort conceded, is trickier. Contact tracers call people who come back from holidays, but \u201cwe dont have the police or judicial capacity to follow up. The doctors will not be ringing the doors, either, as they have other things to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Vervoort, who studied law at the Free University of Brussels, expressed concern that the tracing would encroach on individual freedoms.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe should keep in mind that at the peak of the crisis, we went to the limit of what is legally possible,\u201d he said. \u201cThe curfew [in Antwerp] is a measure we hadnt known since the German occupation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was during his student years, in 1980, that Vervoort joined the PS ranks, which he climbed to become the mayor of the municipality of Evere and member of the Brussels parliament \u2014 jobs he still holds today.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/w_56185001-714x503.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Belgiums Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes Rudi Vervoort, premier of the Brussels region, in June | Stephanie Lecocq\/EFE via EPA<\/p>\n<p>He has been minister-president \u2014 the official title for the head of the Brussels region \u2014 since 2013. \u201cThe job is to synthesize sometimes opposing views, to make trade-offs and play the role of the guardian of the coalition agreement,\u201d Vervoort said, adding, \u201cThat doesnt mean the minister-president becomes politically disembodied.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Political clash<\/h3>\n<p>His term has included a period of intense constitutional tension. Belgium has not had a full government since December 2018 and a summer effort by political leaders on either side of the Wallonia-Flanders divide to form<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/coronavirus-pulled-into-belgiums-sectarian-politics\/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&amp;utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=RSS_Syndication\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More \u2013 Source<\/a><br \/>\n[contf]<br \/>\n[contfnew]<br \/>\n        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/snap.md\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/politico-logo.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<h5><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">politico<\/a><\/h5>\n<p>[contfnewc]<br \/>\n[contfnewc]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Belgiums feuding political tribes have anot..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":151228,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - 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