Belgian police assigned to guard the home of Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne have complained that their van was urinated upon by guests at his 50th birthday party.
An investigation has been launched into a police complaint against three merry-makers, a spokesman for the Kortrijk prosecutor’s office, Tom Janssens, told AFP on Thursday.
Van Quickenborne turned 50 on August 1 and on the night of August 14 held a big shindig at his home in the northwest town for dozens of guests.
According to news daily Het Nieuwsblad, three guests — visibly inebriated — were caught relieving themselves against one of the police vans attached to the security detail.
Since 2022, when the minister and his family were allegedly threatened with kidnap by a drug gang, the residence has been under police protection and video surveillance.
Reacting to the claim, the minister has insisted that he did not witness or approve of the act.
And in a statement released by his office, Van Quickenborne warned: “If the police made findings then they must be followed up.”
But the Belgian police union, the SNPS, was not appeased, denouncing what it ironically dubbed the “Watergate Scandal” in an outraged news release.
“Some will argue that these are a few people who have had a few too many and then committed a stupid act,” the union said.
“We argue it is mockery of our police, not a slap in the face but rather a punch.”
It called it “an act of lack of respect for the women and men in uniform, who do their best every day to keep the streets of Kortrijk and by extension the whole country clean”.
