The deontological committee of the Flemish Parliament wants more information about the State Security report that allegedly exists about a delivery of face masks to Vlaams Belang MP Filip Dewinter via Chinese intermediaries. Until then, the complaint from Mieke Schauvliege (Groen) will not be processed further.
LOOK. Filip Dewinter has been discredited for the delivery of 10,000 face masks in 2020
The file was discussed for the first time in the Commission on Thursday. That meeting reportedly lasted an hour and mainly had to decide whether or not Schauvliege’s complaint was admissible. But the committee could not yet make that decision. She first wants answers to two questions: is there actually a State Security report on the case, and can the committee view that report? Until now, the Flemish Parliament has had to make do with the information that appeared in the media about the case.
What is the case about?
Flemish Member of Parliament Filip Dewinter is said to have set up a delivery of 10,000 face masks with the Chinese spy Shao Changchun in 2020. This is apparently evident from a note from the security services about Chinese interference. In the midst of the corona crisis, governments could hardly obtain mouth masks, but Dewinter said he had obtained ten thousand pieces as well as protective suits for free through his “contacts in China and Russia”. The Antwerp Vlaams Belang department also distributed those face masks for free.
According to the security services, Dewinter allegedly set up that deal through the Chinese spy Shao Changchun, who was deported from our country at the end of 2017 for espionage. In 2018, a State Security report was leaked stating that Dewinter had provided assistance for Changchun for years, but there appeared to be no criminal offenses. The Vlaams Belang leader denies that he still had contact with the Chinese spy after 2018.
If the complaint is admissible, the deontological committee can hear those involved – such as Schauvliege and Dewinter – and then decide on the possible consequences. According to the regulations, the committee has until March 3 to do this.
The ethics committee can in principle blame Dewinter. Such an official reprimand does not have any concrete consequences, but it is quite exceptional. The last one dates from 2005, when the liberal Jaak Gabriëls was blamed for asking the Flemish Housing Company to give a family from Bree priority when allocating social housing. The deontological committee later dealt with complaints against then candidate SP.A chairman John Crombez in 2015 and against N-VA Member of Parliament Kris Van Dijck in 2019. The complaint against the latter turned out to be inadmissible, and Crombez then made, according to the committee again no mistake by contracting a juvenile judge on a file of domestic violence.
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