“Joe Biden? In Rome, at the funeral of Pope Franciscus, I still tried to kidnap my wife,” says Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever. “He suddenly walked with her. What I asked: ‘Could I get back my wife?. ‘ Biden responded with: “Who are you?” ‘I’m the Prime Minister of Belgium’I said. He believed that, because who would lie about that now? “
It is one of the more than 26 times that Bart De Wever has the laughers on his hand in an hour, Thursday evening during his HJ Schoo lecture in Amsterdam. That prestigious presentation, organized by Weekblad EW, is considered unofficial opening of the Dutch political year. In previous years, Pieter Omtzigt (2024), Caroline van der Plas (2023) and Dilan Yesilgöz (2022) were on the podium of the Rode Hoed, right under the organ of this former church. De Wever is the first foreign speaker to provide the HJ Schoo lecture.
Just before the Hague election campaign, EW Hella Hueck opted for the HJ Schoo lecture in his own words ‘a fresh look from outside’. Bart De Wever has been considered the most important politician in Belgium for years, not least because of his eloquence. Two decades ago, in a time of liberal progress optimism, De Wever breathed new life into Flemish nationalism with conservative views. After a period as mayor of Antwerp and party leader of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), De Wever became the first Flemish nationalist Prime Minister of Belgium last January.
De Wever, invariably in tailored suit with Gillet, this time with an orange tie to show his love for the Netherlands, and for the Great-Netherlands; The idea that Belgium and the Netherlands go together. With some pleasure he fits about the “sour reactions” that he receives from parties in French -speaking Belgium. The word ‘Belgium’ seems to want to avoid De Wever, by the way, he would rather mention ‘the Southern Netherlands’. Furthermore, the Flemish nationalist, who for years to the Netherlands, warns as a shining, now for chaos in political The Hague. “Do not go so far that you will eventually have to refer to your Zuiderbuur for a stable government.”
In the rest of his HJ Schoo lecture, De Wever connects some of the cultural-conservative and economic liberal views that he has been propagating for years, with the geopolitical reality in which he now goes as a prime minister every day. It is remarkable that he looks at further European cooperation, while his N-VA is in the European Parliament in the Euro-critical group of the radical-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
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No kindergarten
De Wever is rapidly listing what Europe is wrong with. It is a “tired continent” with “green doem thinking and deGrowth”, which has become “hyper -sensitive and morally conceited”. “The world is not a kindergarten,” and that is why Europe has to be “more resilient and resilient”. “Only that gives us the weight, power and influence to play on a global scale.”
According to the Belgian Prime Minister, more prosperity is needed for this. He argues for “a real single market” with considerably lower trading rates between EU member states themselves. De Wever also wants to get rid of current regulations, for example when it comes to mining. This is necessary to achieve ‘an open, strategic autonomy’, and to enter into ‘strong partnerships’ with countries that’ do not want to fall under the US or China, who do not want to call someone ‘daddy’. “
De Wever wants De Wever to come into effect next year in terms of migration, even in the knowledge that the strict EU migration pact that Member States have agreed. He wants, “to Australian model,” that people who enter Europe in an irregular way never have a chance to win a passport.
That seems somewhat contradictory with the point that he subsequently makes about “including nationalism.” In his book about identity from 2019, De Wever, from home from a historian, outlined how the Romans designed a form of citizenship that one could get through certain merits. He opposed that against the “ethnic nationalism” of the ancient Greeks and of current radical-right parties. In his lecture, De Wever summarizes it as “Dutch or Flemish can be.” Then, with a wink: “All the rest is a fate.”
Laugh at the Benelux
What if not all EU member states are ready for the weavers of a Europe with lower trade barriers, larger strategic autonomy and stricter migration policy? Then he looks at the Benelux, the more than eighty -year -old partnership between Belgium and the Netherlands.
De Wever shows his excellent sense of timing throughout the evening. Until he mentions Article 350 of the EU and EU. “That gives the Benelux the opportunity to integrate faster and deeper than the European Union itself.” Suddenly the room grins, while De Wever gave no cross. The politician looks irritated from his paper. “Why are you laughing with that? I mean this very seriously,” he says. De Wever mentions police cooperation and recognizing each other’s diplomas as examples of current Benelux cooperation. “Other [EU-]Member States look interested in our way of collaboration. “Article 350” should be our slogan! “
For example, the image of a politician who is welcome to sketch and make jokes to sketches over Europe, but whose mission to achieve concrete rapprochement between Belgium and the Netherlands, is at least received by this room in ‘the North’.
After his speech (followed by “the longest applause in years,” says editor -in -chief Hueck), De Wever takes extensive time for photos – he keeps his cola bottle out of the picture. When leaving, in the doorway, he wants to against NRC When asked something about laughing at closer Benelux collaboration. “It is typically Dutch that a call for cooperation apparently works on the laughing muscles. But if we can’t find any synergy in the Benelux, what should we in Europe?” De Wever looks grim. “I’m going to keep coming to the north. This is my lifelong struggle. I never give up. And in the meantime I have a bigger megaphone.”