History of Codeco n°3

December 18, 2020 Press Conference

588 days since the press conference of April 15, 2020, where we introduced in the room  » a politically biased question « , which  » is not the habit of journalists « , says Sophie Wilmès. The habit of journalists is to ask the questions that politicians expect and to comment on their decisions, rather than to seek the truth. The mass media do not play the role of a fourth estate, but rather manufacture consent. Not being adept at such collusion, the political power will close the doors of press conferences for more than eight months. We were not counting on our determination…

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Kairos will publish the 17 press conferences we attended. More than 20 unanswered questions. In front of them, no doubts, no questioning, no desire to understand, but a fixed, rigid end that justifies all their means. Imagine for a moment if all these issues had been debated democratically. Do you think we would be there today?

-Alexandre Penasse: Many groups of doctors, nurses, scientists have sent you open letters questioning the government policy, the PCR tests, (cut of the question)…

Alexander De Croo: Sir, the time before I told you that too: either you ask a question [je pose ma question!] Yes, but this is not the time to make statements.

-AP: I don’t declare! There are many people who have questioned the vaccination scheme which seems unavoidable, I ask you the question, you never answer these questions. The debate seems to be completely closed in Belgium. Isn’t this Covid crisis managed in a totally undemocratic way like many other things that should concern us all?

-ADC: I didn’t quite understand your question, but so… in relation to the vaccine…

-AP: Is the vaccine the only solution?

ADC: Yes, we are being advised by scientists, and so far I have not seen a serious scientist who explains to me that there is another solution [j’en ai vu beaucoup comme journaliste]. Well, you see other than me, but all serious scientists tell me that the only solution is the vaccine and we would start vaccinating at the end of the year. [Can we discuss this democratically, Mr. De Croo?]

-ADC: Sir, one last question if you wish.

-AP: You don’t seem to like my questions. People certainly understand that you want to save lives, but they don’t understand why you didn’t do it before, so I’m just asking you (you gasp, Mr. Jeholet, I’m asking as a journalist) what have you done since March? Now you’re talking about a third wave, at the third we’ll talk about the fourth maybe, what have you done since March to try to stem that? And especially for public hospitals and people who …

-ADC: Sir, we have refinanced hospitals to the tune of at least 4 billion. We took measures that were very severe, and we have in a period of 8 weeks, we went from the worst student to today, there are few countries that do better than us, but if you think there is a magic solution to manage this crisis, show it to me! And show me a country that today has found a magic solution except for countries that are extremely far away like New Zealand, but that geographically is a bit different.

-AP: I didn’t say there was a magic solution, but I asked you a question last time, the live feed was cut off, where I was asking you about the collateral effects in particular of the measures that are being taken with people dying, suicides and all the things I mentioned.

-ADC: As always sir, if you want to send messages, run for office, you are a candidate, you are elected to parliament, you have a message. Well, a press conference is for asking questions, not for making political statements.