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“State Security is not monitoring the climate demonstrations and their organisers,” Justice Minister Koen Geens said on Wednesday in answer to a question from Groen (Green) legislator Stefaan Van Hecke at a parliamentary committee meeting.
“Should there be attempts, at any given moment, by extreme left or extreme right groups to infiltrate the organisation of these demonstrations – threats State Security would be authorised to verify – it would not fail to examine them, but for now there is no question of that,” the minister explained.
Former Flemish Climate Minister Joke Schauvliege found herself in the eye of a storm after claiming that she had been assured by a contact in State Security that the climate marches were the result of a plot. She later walked that claim back and resigned.
“Mr. Van Hecke, I can in fact confirm that there was no communication between Minister Schauvliege and State Security,” Geens stressed. “Minister Schauvliege herself has meanwhile confirmed that and presented her apology. You know that, in the meantime, she has resigned.”
The Justice Minister said he had not intervened in the matter and that there had been no directive from the National Security Council.
Jason Bennett
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