An elaborate birthday celebration could see Belgium’s Minister of Justice, Vincent Van Quickenborne, resign. During the event, three people are said to have urinated against a police car – the minister is said to have amusedly imitated the act in the immediate vicinity.
Referring to the famous Watergate scandal, the Belgian media reports about a ‘pee gate’, a ‘pee incident’ or even a ‘pee affair’. As ‘Le Parisien’ reports, Van Quickenborne (Liberal-Democratic Party) even has to answer to the judicial commission of Belgian parliamentarians on Thursday because of the incident.
The whole thing is said to have taken place at a birthday party on August 14 at his home in Kortrijk, West Flanders, where Van Quickenborne is also mayor. Three guests are said to have left the party at one point and urinated in a police car that was parked near the minister’s home. A surveillance camera installed on the street filmed the three people.
Prosecutor: ‘Really have other things to do’
The Kortrijk public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into defamation on August 23 and, like the police, confirmed that the minister was not present at the time of the incident. Following the prosecution’s announcement, the cabinet stressed that it “obviously strongly disapproved of” the incident.
“We work hard to protect the minister and his family, we can’t laugh about it,” a police officer complained anonymously to the public VRT. “We really have other things to do than deal with people urinating in public,” the prosecutor added.
Surprising twist in an affair
However, the affair took a new turn when VRT revealed on Monday that the minister could also be among those who behaved inappropriately towards the police vehicle. Several guests allegedly urinated on the vehicle at 8:40 PM, 10 PM, and midnight.
The photos show them taking pictures of themselves and also getting into the apparently unlocked vehicle. Around 04:00, the minister appeared on the video surveillance images. According to the VRT, at the time he could clearly be seen mimicking the behavior of someone urinating while escorting a guest home.
Photos ‘don’t prove I knew what was happening’
This led to renewed controversy in Belgium. Van Quickenborne responded in a statement Tuesday morning: “The interpretation of the footage is suggestive and in no way proves that I knew what had happened hours earlier. I knew nothing about it, that’s the only truth. I want to apologize again for the behavior of these people,” he said.
Moreover, he claims that he himself handed over the images from the surveillance camera to the Belgian media. Various parties such as the N-VA (right) and Vlaams Belang (far right) are now demanding his resignation “if it turns out that he has made false statements”. The PTB, a Walloon party of the radical left, urgently requested its hearing from the deputies. This is what will happen on Thursday.
Source: Krone
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