ANTWERP — Prime Minister Bart De Wever needs to get serious about the fraying rule of law in Belgium, a top judge said Tuesday.
Bart Willocx, whose role is first president of the Antwerp Court of Appeal, told POLITICO in an interview that the Belgian justice system must be funded properly — after “decades” of under-financing — to fight a rising tide of drug-fueled violence and corruption.
“Help us to secure the functioning of justice … We need budget, otherwise there are problems for normal citizens and functioning and it won’t end in a good way,” Willocx said, when asked what message he had for the Belgian government, which is currently locked in intractable budget talks.Willocx said that the rule of law in Belgium, like elsewhere in Europe and the U.S., is under pressure. “A very simple way to suppress the courts is when you don’t give them enough budget, because then they are not working well, they can’t do what they should do,” he said.
His blunt intervention comes the day after another Antwerp judge published an anonymous letter decrying that Belgium was on the verge of becoming a “narco-state.”
De Wever, prime minister since February this year, spent more than a decade as mayor of Antwerp demanding more federal money to address narcotics-related issues, but Willocx notes action hasn’t been forthcoming since he ascended to the Belgian premiership.
“He was the mayor and now he is the prime minister. I’m sure that safety and security and these kind of things are very important to him, but we ask his government to invest more, to stop this,” said Willocx.
“As a mayor he said we need money from the federal government, but now he is the prime minister … We are waiting and he refers to the minister of justice, and the minister of justice refers to the government, but we are waiting for more support,” he added, exasperatedly. De Wever’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the judge’s criticism.
The massive Port of Antwerp acts as a gateway for illegal narcotics — particularly cocaine coming from Latin America — to enter Europe, and turf wars have spilled onto streets across Belgium, with shootings and bombings taking place both in Antwerp and Brussels.
Complicating the quest to solve the problem, De Wever is embroiled in tense negotiations with coalition partners to hammer out a new budget to balance Belgium’s strained finances.
He has given the parties until Nov. 6 to resolve the budget crisis and threatened to quit if there is no agreement. Belgium is one of four eurozone countries that failed to deliver its draft budget by the European Commission’s Oct. 15 deadline.
In Willocx’s opinion, gangs have been successful in corrupting officials like port workers, police and customs agents, and in order to tackle the society-wide problem, money must be invested in overcrowded prisons and social rehabilitation.
Employees of the courts and the public prosecution service have been leading a campaign to highlight the issues for months now, and recently published a list of 100 proposals to be addressed.
“We have a certain power and responsibility and we want to do it in a way that is serving our society and in this moment we see important risks. If this doesn’t change, we won’t be able to do what we should do,” Willocx warned.
“We don’t do this only for ourselves. When you become a magistrate, it’s not to become rich or get power, but to push things in a better direction. We want to secure normal citizens so they are not afraid,” Willocx said.
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