Peter Mertens : "Sovereignty or Submission? Belgian government chooses the U.S. over peace"
Gas prices are going through the roof because of a dirty and illegal war waged by Trump and Netanyahu. Ordinary people will foot the bill through their heating costs or at the pump.
Belgium Minister of War Theo Francken is pouring as much oil on the fire as possible, taking staged 'war room photos' of himself, and now wants to drag our country into a hopeless war. According to Francken, the Belgian army is already making preparations to intervene in the Middle East. With what mandate from parliament? With what mandate from the people?
Prime Minister De Wever, meanwhile, is actively participating in the undermining of the international legal order by claiming that International Law would no longer apply when great powers choose not to apply it. So, because Trump is wiping his feet on the United Nations and international law, everyone else no longer needs to follow it either.
Yesterday, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth - respectively the president, secretary of state, and secretary of defense of the US - told five different versions (!) in a single day about the US intervention in the Middle East. They are dragging the entire world into an endless conflict that not only threatens the region but also risks spilling over into Europe. This is about oil and raw materials, and about cutting off the energy supply to China.
In Davos, Belgian prime minister Bart De Wever said something about 'happy vassals and unhappy slaves' to Trump, and Merz and company tried to put Europe's "autonomy" on the agenda. But look how quickly they all now fall back into the position of 'happy vassal’, neatly following in the wake of Trump's warmongering. It is remarkable how compliant Belgian government is toward the US and toward war criminal Netanyahu. It is completely irresponsible how Francken &co are trying to drag our country into this hopeless war, which will only bring more destruction and insecurity, just like the wars in Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan.
Yesterday, Tom Van Grieken, the leader of the far right, also paid a visit and had his photo taken with US Ambassador Bill White, who is in the meantime busy executing the playbook of the US National Security Strategy, which spells out how Washington wants to divide Europe and intends to use the far right to do so. The far right is a war party that supports a policy that drives up gas prices, seeks to curtail democratic rights, and pushes the world into even greater instability.
Meanwhile, our comrades from the Tudeh Party are imprisoned in Iran. I also personally know several Iranians from the diaspora, members of the Tudeh Party who have always resisted the regime.
We have submitted resolutions in both the European and Flemish parliaments to oppose the brutal repression in Iran, and we continue to support the democratic and freedom-loving forces in Iran. But there is no people that can be bombed into freedom, and there has been no illegal US intervention in recent decades that has achieved this. Just look at Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan, where hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives in the meantime, and where extremism has only grown.
Anyone who supports this illegal war is complicit in even more repression and misery.
Just like Spain, Belgium must refuse any military involvement in the war. Meanwhile, Trump has also threatened Spain, and instead of defending Spain in this matter, the cowardly leaders from Berlin, London, Brussels, and Paris remain silent. Minister of Labor Yolanda Díaz is right when she says that "Spain does not accept blackmail or lessons from an aggressor country." She added: "We are a country of peace. If the United States wants an ally, start by respecting our sovereignty and international law." It is a matter of "sovereignty or submission," Spain rightly says. It is time to choose the side of the people, of sovereignty, and of peace.
