Interior minister presents book

13 March 2007

BRUSSELS – Minister for the Interior Patrick Dewael (Open VLD) wants society as a whole to work together to fight senseless violence. Politics should not give the impression that a few laws will be able to rid the country of the phenomenon, but trivialising senseless violence is not an option.

Dewael said this on Tuesday at the presentation of his book “Eelt op mijn ziel” (Callous on my soul). The title refers to the difficult decisions that the minister had to take in the past five years on a number of wrenching dossiers regarding asylum and immigration. On the one hand the minister had to uphold the law, on the other he had to satisfy his own conscience.

“I’ve always tried to follow the path of righteousness and the law,” Dewael said. “That is not an easy path. It is a path on which one’s soul becomes calloused.”

He reiterated his standpoint that illegal status should not yield any rights and his opposition to legalising illegal aliens, as the Spirit party has suggested.

The minister’s book is published by Houtekiet, counts 179 pages and costs EUR 16.50.

Subject: Belgian news