POLITICIANS AND THEIR PAGE: HOW TO GET THE MONEY WITHOUT GETTING CAUGHT

In the Middle Ages, a page was the steward of a knight… In 2019, things have changed. Our politicians are PEPs, politically exposed people. This means that under anti-money laundering and anti-corruption legislation, you cannot pay one euro to a public official without this payment being reported to the Cellule de Traitement des Informations Financières (CTIF) and frozen.⁽¹⁾

Horror, misfortune! You are a politician, you have the opportunity to direct public contracts and you find your official salary ridiculous, what to do? You take a page…

HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR PAGE ?

A criterion of great proximity and mutual trust is required: you will entrust your page with what you need to send to Lantin for several decades… on paper. You must choose him among your close relations, without distinction of age or sex: your brother (biological or of box…), your sexual partner, your closest collaborator, etc… The ideal is that he puts the hand as fast as possible in the chocolate pot, in front of you. This is an old mafia method. You can never be too careful…

Your page must then navigate between two waters: businessmen who would like to corrupt you must know easily who to contact and, at the same time, it must not be visible on the official radar… A man or woman of the shadows, with enormous power and willing to live out of the light. Because the light is for you… Nevertheless, you must provide your page with a discreet comfortable situation, in case of a hard blow and to avoid that it hits too much in the box. Because the fund is for you, a lot and for the party, a little. The logical consequence of this situation is that it is rare to see a page in the Belgian media.

A few days ago, the MR, in the person of Valérie De Bue, publicly let down a page of the party, the half-brother of former president Olivier Chastel, a certain Thomas Salden, whom you had never heard of until today. This is normal.

Yet the bugger declares 14 terms in 2017. Not bad for someone who has no college degree and has never been elected⁽²⁾. This is not his first time. In 2004, Olivier Chastel subsidized his brother Thomas’ ASBL for an amount of 120,000 euros spread over 4 years. The social object of this association named « Initiatives en Val de Sambre » leaves one wondering:  » it aims to work by any means to the advent of a society which harmoniously integrates all the social components of the district of Charleroi-Thuin … « ⁽³⁾… such vagueness leaves plenty of room for manoeuvre.

He had been given a totally useless position at 200,000 euros per year at the Intercommunal Public Health of the Charleroi Region⁽⁴⁾. This is Salden on public display. Gosh. The suppository did not pass. Is there a war of succession going on?

Another page was also exposed to public rumor this year… and by the courts. This is so rare that it is worth noting. Léon-François Deferm, the historical page of the Mathot family, has had some problems with the Intradel affair, named after the company operating the waste reprocessing plant in Liege. A bribe of a dozen million was paid in connection with the award of the 193 million euro contract for this plant. Nevertheless, as is often the case, he got off too easy:  » Deferm, the Mathot family friend, got a full reprieve from his one-year prison sentence. « ⁽⁵⁾

SMALL TYPOLOGY OF « PAGES

It is interesting to note here the different types of « pages ».

1. The « brothers of

First, you have the biological brothers or half-brothers, of which here are some non-exhaustive examples:

- Jean-Pierre Reynders, architect.⁽⁶⁾

- Pierre Magnette, architect and manager of Charleroi Tirou Promotion.⁽⁷⁾

The profession of architect is ultra-compatible with the function of page. According to our sources, the Russian intelligence services, for example, began to bribe Didier Reynders through his brother, to whom they entrusted costly work at the Russian embassy, the plans for which we found in the town hall of Uccle.⁽⁸⁾

A fine example of brotherhood that can serve is also found in the ranks of the HRC:

- Roberto Di Antonio, known as Bob, founder of the SPRL Mar’Bob⁽⁹⁾, who when he does not spend his time for the festival of Dour with his brother Carlo,  » devotes it to the management of [son] real estate assets « Businesses work…⁽¹⁰⁾

2. The close, very close…

Then you have the category of very, very close people… like :

- Michèle Lempereur, the widow of Guy Mathot, became companion of Willy Demeyer, the current mayor of Liege.⁽¹¹⁾

- Luc Joris, a close friend of Elio Di Rupo.⁽¹²⁾

3. The great professionals

Finally, you have the pros:

- Koen Blijweert, CVP page passed to the NVA. The Flemish have a more pragmatic side than the Walloons. Indeed, both the CVP, now the CDNV, and the NVA used Blijweert as an intermediary.⁽¹³⁾

- Ludwig Van Der Veken, CDNV having replaced the previous one. The head of cabinet of Pieter De Crem. Sworn enemy of the next.

- And finally the « king » of the discipline Jean-Claude Fontinoy. He is no longer presented. He has just celebrated his 80th property at a cocktail party in his small castle in Mozet. He had invited the top brass of the antiques world, so useful for laundering. Let’s bet that if Reynders is not « rejected » by the European Parliament and becomes a European Commissioner, a great international career will open up for this champion of the trickery in Belgium.

A REAL MAFIA INTRODUCED IN THE SECURITY, IN THE FINANCES, IN THE MEDIA…

The system of endemic corruption linked to the « pages » is so influential that they control CTIF, the central office for the fight against corruption, the security service, the SGRS(Service Général du Renseignement et de la Sécurité), etc., and many magistrates, not to mention the traditional media. Want an example? Martin Buxant, one of the mainstays of the new news channel LN24, wrote an ode to Didier Reynders a few years ago.⁽¹⁴⁾ You don’t risk to see him criticizing the man of the Kazakhgate and the frozen Libyan funds…

Our politicians are, for many, the opposite of the knights of old. No more Roland’s song, with them. Their attitude has long since been dictated not by the general interest but by unlimited greed. Few people know the names mentioned above and they are only the visible face of an iceberg, which the Publifin affair in Liège has made visible. Many of us have a latent sense of unease with the political world. The situation is such that it is likely to generate legitimate violence. Our system has run out of steam. It’s up to us to change it…

Eric Arthur Parme