Belgian Parliament to address Jean-Claude Van Damme TV bid on Wednesday

Belgian Parliament to address Jean-Claude Van Damme TV bid on Wednesday
Credit: Belga

Belgium's federal parliament will debate on Wednesday whether to give the green light to actor Jean-Claude Van Damme's bid to film a new TV show installing him as PM, officials told The Brussels Times.

"The Parliament president's secretariat last week asked producers to provide the legislature with fuller details regarding the proposed plot following the request for camera access," a spokesperson said. They added that a decision will be made on Wednesday afternoon.

The weekly meeting of rival political groups, which normally concerns itself with policy priorities and negotiations over the allocation of speaking time and parliamentary questions, is due to wrap up at around 14:00.

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Parliament Speaker Elianne Tillieux chaired an initial exchange of views last week with an RTBF source in the legislature saying her call for more detail was motivated by feuding Belgian politicians' concerns about Parliament's "image".

Slated for filming this year regardless of institutional permission, Van Damme's latest scenario borrows from a real political crisis when Belgium beat even some of Africa’s most ruthless dictatorships in going 500 days without a functioning government – twice in the last decade.

The pitch is based on the premise that a fed-up Philippe, King of Belgium, asks the no-nonsense actor to bang everyone’s heads together; with only a limited number of scenes expected to be shot inside the parliament buildings.

Contacted by The Brussels Times on Tuesday, the Belgian-EU capital-based producers AT Prod would only say: "A fair amount of detail concerning the script in development has already come out via the national broadcaster." They declined to give further comment on political permissions.


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