Belgian politicians refused to admit that muslim immigrants have been building closed, parallel societies, says Tom Van Grieken. According to the president of Flemish Interest (Vlaams Belang) national borders in the European Union must be protected.
What made these attacks possible while Brussels is on the highest terror alert level for months now?
It is early to draw conclusions and I will wait for the results of the investigation. It is however not too early to point out that attacks like this are partly made possible by the lack of border controls, just like the ones in Paris last year. We don’t know who comes in, or who leaves our country.
On top of that, it is already well known that Brussels, and certainly not only Molenbeek, is a breeding-ground for jihadism. The so called multicultural society in Brussels is not multicultural at all. Quite the opposite: a lot of neighbourhoods are in fact very monocultural. Alcohol is unavailable in shops and supermarkets, men pressure women to wear the veil, Islamic bookshops proliferate and radical underground mosques flourish. People who don’t want to conform to the Islamic lifestyle, are bullied and leave. This has been going on in big cities in Belgium for years, but the political establishment refused to recognize this as a problem. A culture of denial has pervaded the debate about immigration and Islam for years. Those who pointed out the unpleasant truth, like my party the Vlaams Belang, were accused of being propagandists of the extreme-right or worse, they were called racist. Today, even the staunchest deniers have to admit that our cities are home to a very dangerous undercurrent of radical Islamism. Yesterday we have seen the result.
What does Vlaams Belang suggest now for the Belgian authorities?
There is a lot of work to be done, but the government should start with severe border controls, so that we know who comes in and out of our country. Known radical islamists should be pre-emptively apprehended and locked up. On top of that, the Le Jeune-law should be abolished. This law allows prisoners to be granted parole for good behaviour. Today, we know that two of the terrorists responsible for the attack at Brussels Airport, were convicted criminals. One, Khalid El Bakraoui, was convicted for a series of carjackings in 2011 and the other, Ibrahim El Bakraoui, was involved in a violent robbery in 2010, where he used a Kalashnikov to fire at the police. Both of them were convicted, but were allowed to go free for so-called good behaviour.
You suggest to close the borders immediately, would this be avoidable if the external borders were closed?
No. I firmly believe that every nation has a right to control and choose who they let in their country and who they don’t. A nation without borders is no nation at all. Controls at the external border of Europe don’t change that fact.
Do these attacks mean that Europe's current migration policy is not correct?
Europe’s current migration policy might not be the main cause of the attacks, but it certainly plays a role. Allowing millions of people from the middle east to come in, with no means to control their identity or background is very risky. Islamic State has stated many times that they would use the refugee crisis as a means to get terrorists on European soil. The fact that the EU allows them to do this, is damning.
What do these events say about the credibility, legitimacy of EU leaders Martin Schulz and Jean-Claude Juncker? They were making decisions, propagated immigration in the name of those, who were killed.
Those who propagated the mass influx of Muslims are certainly partly responsible for what happened. However, as I stated earlier, the problems already were there before the recent asylum crisis. The fact that the debate about Islam and mass immigration was paralyzed for such a long time allowed this to happen right under our noses.
