Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever fired back at Politico on Thursday after the outlet labeled him “Russia’s most valuable asset,” mocking the claim with biting sarcasm and theatrical flair.
Responding publicly, De Wever joked that he was off to his “dacha in St. Petersburg” to meet his “neighbours,” Gérard Depardieu and Bashar al-Assad, skewering what he portrayed as the absurdity of the accusation.
The Axel Springer–owned outlet, which employs roughly 350 staffers in its European bureau alone, had taken a personal swipe at the prime minister in an early December article. The piece described the “bespectacled 54-year-old” as an “eccentric figure at the EU summit table, with his penchant for round-collared shirts, Roman history and witty one-liners.” It was authored by four reporters just as De Wever’s opposition to the EU asset-seizure plan was becoming a growing irritation for Friedrich Merz and Ursula von der Leyen.
After the German-backed plan collapsed at what proved to be a bruising EU summit for Merz and von der Leyen, De Wever addressed one of the article’s authors directly.
“Politico, you published some very nice articles with some very nice titles, claiming that I was Russia’s most valuable asset? I like that one a lot. I will remember that one. But go ahead with your question anyway, because as I said, a real politician lets go of his emotions, even if these emotions are pure anger, vengeance, and maybe even violence.”
He then concluded with a final, deliberately exaggerated flourish.
“But now I have to go to my dacha in St. Petersburg,” he said, “where my neighbor is Gerard Depardieu, and across the street there is Bashar al-Assad. And I think I can become mayor of that little village. Maybe that could be your title.”
Depardieu, the French actor, received Russian citizenship from President Vladimir Putin in 2013, though he does not reside in Russia full time. Assad was granted asylum by Russia after being overthrown last December by forces led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and now lives in Moscow with his family.
Authored By: Global GeoPolitics
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