Brussels Reporter
  • Home
  • Brussels
  • Europe
    • Europe

      Biden inauguration: Fireworks light up Washington DC sky…

      January 21, 2021January 21, 2021

      Europe

      Bejing slaps sanctions on Pompeo and several other…

      January 21, 2021January 21, 2021

      Europe

      European leaders congratulate US President Joe Biden after…

      January 20, 2021January 20, 2021

      Europe

      Et tu, Matteo? How Giuseppe Conte survived political…

      January 20, 2021

      Europe

      Brexit headache: French firms point finger at UK…

      January 20, 2021January 20, 2021

  • Globe
  • Lifestyle
  • Business

Brussels Reporter

  • Home
  • Brussels
  • Europe
    • Europe

      Biden inauguration: Fireworks light up Washington DC sky…

      January 21, 2021January 21, 2021

      Europe

      Bejing slaps sanctions on Pompeo and several other…

      January 21, 2021January 21, 2021

      Europe

      European leaders congratulate US President Joe Biden after…

      January 20, 2021January 20, 2021

      Europe

      Et tu, Matteo? How Giuseppe Conte survived political…

      January 20, 2021

      Europe

      Brexit headache: French firms point finger at UK…

      January 20, 2021January 20, 2021

  • Globe
  • Lifestyle
  • Business
Home Brussels Belgian prince defends Leopold II: ‘He never went to Congo’
BrusselsFeatured

Belgian prince defends Leopold II: ‘He never went to Congo’

by editor June 12, 2020June 12, 2020
June 12, 2020June 12, 2020

Responding to a growing call to remove statues of Leopold II, the former Belgian king who colonized the Congo, Belgian Prince Laurent came to his ancestor’s defense.

“He never went to the Congo,” Laurent told Belgian outlet Sudpresse in an interview published Friday. “I don’t see how he could have made people suffer on the ground.”

He added: “You have to understand that there were many people who worked for Leopold II and those people really committed abuse, but that doesn’t mean Leopold II did.”

Laurent’s comments come amid a push from local activists to rid public spaces of statues of the former king, who ruled the Congo as his private colony starting in the 1880s until it was taken over by the Belgian state in 1908.

Leopold’s regime in the Congo Free State was notorious for its brutality, including forced labor, kidnappings and the killing of rebels. A typical punishment and method of exerting control involved cutting off the hands of Congolese workers or their children. Estimates of the occupation’s death toll run as high as 10 million lives.

Several statues of Leopold II across Belgium have been defaced and covered in graffiti and red paint in recent days, amid Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in the United States.

A petition to remove all statues to the former Belgian king by June 30, the 60th anniversary of Congo’s independence, has gathered more than 75,000 signatures.

The royal palace hasn’t put out a formal statement in response to the growing call to revive a debate about the country’s colonial past, according to Le Soir.

Laurent, the younger brother of King Philippe, is known for speaking off the cuff and getting in the government’s crosshairs, including over his royal salary and money he says he is owed from the frozen funds of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Source link

previous post
Coronavirus: UK economy suffers record 20.4% contraction
next post
Coronavirus: Italy prosecutors quiz PM Conte on crisis

Related Posts

Didier Reynders will also become Defence minister

December 9, 2018

New protocol enables Belgium to block Internet fraudsters...

November 26, 2018

Nuclear power plants extensions: "adopted without required assessments"

November 29, 2018

OECD recommends Belgium to improve immigrants’ skills

November 21, 2018

Antwerp ZOO encourages mating of penguins with a...

April 24, 2019

China hits back at call in Belgian parliament...

May 27, 2020

'Incoherent' N-VA socio-economic proposals, says Kris Peeters

April 22, 2019

National Gendarmerie mobilise “unprecedented” deployment of units across...

December 7, 2018

Benelux Summit cancelled, Prime Minister busy

December 13, 2018

Belgium to spend more than one billion euros...

March 16, 2019
Promotion Image

Recent Posts

  • Biden inauguration: Fireworks light up Washington DC sky as Hollywood A-list turns out to celebrate
  • Australia Day row: PM Morrison criticises Cricket Australia over words’ removal
  • Biden sets to work on reversing Trump policies with executive orders
  • Bejing slaps sanctions on Pompeo and several other ‘anti-China’ Trump officials
  • European leaders congratulate US President Joe Biden after inauguration ceremony
Promotion Image

GO!

Instagram

No images found!
Try some other hashtag or username

Lifestyle

  • Keeping the country in Europe cost Syriza power

  • The populist surge that did not happen

  • Can Europe avoid the coming crisis?

  • Green country went even greener

  • The Social democrats’ comeback

Popular Posts

  • 1

    Beware of scammING. Dirty money of famous bank

    October 6, 2020
  • 2

    The death of the city

    July 27, 2020
  • 3

    From Strasbourg to Stirling: An MEP aims to switch parliaments

    December 11, 2019

Editor’s Choices

  • Can Europe avoid the coming crisis?

    August 26, 2019
  • Avoiding a repeat performance of the financial crisis

    July 14, 2019
  • The EU’s next big challenge

    June 11, 2019

Opinions

  • Keeping the country in Europe cost Syriza power

    August 28, 2019
  • The populist surge that did not happen

    August 27, 2019
  • Can Europe avoid the coming crisis?

    August 26, 2019

@2018-2020 - Brussels Reporter (www.brusselsreporter.com). All Right Reserved.