US Ambassador Bill White has once again lashed out at Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke (Vooruit) in the latest development of a week-long heated diplomatic row. Vandenbroucke, in turn, said White had "already crossed several red lines as a diplomat".
Last week, White launched an extraordinary social media attack on Vandenbroucke. He called on Belgium to drop what he termed "the ridiculous and antisemitic" prosecution of three Jewish ritual circumcisers suspected of performing illegal circumcisions in a case dating from last May.
The ambassador was subsequently summoned by the Belgian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday for what the ministry described as "unacceptable" comments. He accused Belgium of antisemitism and is pressuring the government to withdraw the case.
On Sunday, White once again took to social media to lambast Belgium's health minister.
In a comment on Instagram, White referred to the Agusta corruption scandal, in which Vandenbroucke also came into disrepute.
In the post, which has since been deleted, the ambassador wrote: "He [Vandenbroucke] refused to have anything to do with the money and advised 'burn the money'. Frank burns the money."
He added: "Vandenbroucke was not prosecuted, but conveniently took a voluntary 'sabbatical'. The stench of corruption is real."
Crossing red lines
Vandenbroucke commented on the diplomatic row in De Ochtend on Radio 1 on Monday morning, without responding to White's post from Sunday specifically.
"The American ambassador has already crossed several red lines as a diplomat," Vandenbroucke said.
He believes Belgium should focus on the way it organises the country's healthcare, and emphasised that Belgium is a democracy where there is a separation of powers.
"Judges are independent here," Vandenbroucke said. "A minister cannot intervene in this. That's not possible. And so a US ambassador cannot ask our government to stop a judicial investigation."
He also expressed his support for the Flemish socialist leader, Conner Rousseau (Vooruit), who was caught in the crossfire after accusing the United States of democratic decline and likening the country to Nazi Germany during the 1930s.
"In Europe, we live in democracies, you have the right to a political opinion. The ambassador of another country has nothing to say about that," Vandenbroucke added.
For the minister, it is essential to emphasise that the rule of law means a separation of powers: "You don't get involved as a minister, you don't tell a judge: stop that. We are not here in the Middle Ages. You can only say: let that investigation run."
Belgian authorities have already reminded White of the limits to his diplomatic role. They highlighted that personal attacks on a member of the government and interference in domestic affairs breach essential diplomatic protocols.
'Systemic attack' on Belgian healthcare
The health minister also said that we live in a social welfare state in Belgium. "The US government has started a systematic attack on our model, the way we handle medicines and healthcare [...] We place high demands on our medicines, negotiate centrally in Europe on prices and refunds, and they want to get rid of that."
Healthcare is predominantly private in the US. Many residents are uninsured or underinsured, and healthcare is therefore unaffordable for many.
"In the US, you can have any system you like," Vandenbroucke emphasised. "I think it's a bad system; poor people don't have access to healthcare. But what we cannot accept is that they want to impose it on Europe. The American big pharma wants that too."
Vandenbroucke noted that he spoke with representatives of the Jewish community before the summer and made the decision to no longer reimburse a circumcision that is not necessary for medical reasons thereafter, due to limited budgets.
"It is very simple. If you want to perform surgery in our country, you must be a doctor. But I can hardly imagine that that is such a problem: there are also Jewish doctors."
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Vandenbroucke also emphasised that he never intended to conduct the entire debate publicly, "because it is very sensitive in the Jewish community".
"The American ambassador has started to interfere, which I find particularly unfortunate. I deeply regret that the ambassador of another country is causing a commotion here."
