Immediately following the accident, it was reported that one of the two drivers had gone through a red signal, causing the collision. Vervotte and Descheemacker responded that an investigation was under way and warned against speculation as to the causes of the accident.
“One train was travelling from Leuven to ’s Gravenbrakel, the other from Quiévrain to Liège,” said Kristien Berckmans, spokesperson for Infrabel, which is in charge of rail infrastructure. According to Infrabel, there were “a number of injured”. The mayor of Halle, Dirk Pieters, reported 20 dead, even as the injured were still being taken from the scene.
The Flemish minister for Brussels, Pascal Smet, had a heated exchange of words with Brussels Region minister-president Charles Picqué, whom he accused of inaction. Smet also said he was “scandalised” by statements by Brussels mayor Freddie Thielemans, who was seen by many as minimising the problem. The Brussels mayors, most of them French speaking, oppose the unification of the six zones – a policy supported by virtually all Flemish parties.
On Monday, 1 February, justice minister Stefaan De Clerck met with the Brussels prosecutor; at the same time, the police chief for Brussels-Elsene met with magistrates and with Brussels mayor Freddy Thielemans. One aspect of the new policy is certain to be an increase in cooperation between the various police zones in the capital.
After a year of speculation and rumour, it was announced last week that the Opel Antwerp car factory will close, with the loss of 2,600 jobs. Parent company General Motors (GM) intends to close down production by June or July and then sell the land. But Flanders’ minister-president Kris Peeters said he was not prepared to accept the closure. The workers at Opel had demonstrated “that they are prepared to keep on fighting for a worthy alternative,” he said. “The Flemish government will support them completely. It is simply my duty to put my back into it.”
However, by Monday one-half of the 60 rescue workers were back in Belgium after it became clear that the chances of finding more living victims had severely diminished. The team saved a total of three people of the 70 or so found so far under rubble.
Shana and Kevin, aged 18 and 22, were found dead in a burning car barely half an hour after leaving a family party on New Year’s Eve. Both had been shot in what was described as a professional manner. Janssen, who lived next door to the Appeltans family, was interviewed the following Tuesday, at which point the Hasselt prosecutor would only say there were “indications but not proof” of his involvement.
Luckily then, amid last December’s gloomy, failed UN talks to reach a global deal on fighting climate change, there was a glimmer of hope on the environmental horizon as nine European nations, led by Belgium, signed an agreement to develop offshore wind power.
The rail network manager Infrabel issues periodic statistics on timekeeping, but they measure the lateness of trains, not passengers. That tends to sway the results if, for example, a passenger misses a connection and has to take a later train which is perfectly punctual. Thus the rail authorities can claim figures as high as 90% punctuality, whereas, according to TTB, a lot of passengers were disastrously late. TTB asked 903 volunteers to keep a rail diary for a total of 7,500 trips in October, including multiple train connections.
Leterme’s resurrection came as a result of the elevation of Herman Van Rompuy to President of the European Council, after not quite a year in the prime minister’s job. Van Rompuy left with a reputation as a conciliator, able to bring different views together. But his term in office was marked by one more thing: the decision not to pursue state reform, something on which Leterme had staked his reputation.
With Van Rompuy’s departure, Leterme, 49, now takes up office in Wetstraat 16 to find that 800-pound gorilla still sitting in an anteroom waiting for him.
Flanders Today is a 
12°C / 20°C
