友人が警護車両に「立ちション」 司法相の辞任騒動に発展　ベルギー

【ブリュッセルＡＦＰ＝時事】ベルギーのフィンセント・ファンクイッケンボルヌ司法相の友人らが警護車両に「立ちション」していたことが発覚し、火消しに追われており、辞任騒動にまで発展している。（写真はベルギーの首都ブリュッセルで、市民との対話集会を前に取材を受けるフィンセント・ファンクイッケンボルヌ司法相）
　マスコミは事件を、米国の「ウォーターゲート事件」になぞらえ「ピピ（放尿）ゲート」と呼んで嬉々としている。
　ファンクイッケンボルヌ氏の自宅で先月１４日、５０歳の誕生日パーティーが開催された。
　同氏は大規模な麻薬組織から家族に対する脅迫を受け、警察の警護対象となっており、自宅前には警護車両が止まっていた。
　パーティーに参加していた友人３人が、少々飲みすぎたのか家の前に駐車されていた警察のバンに向かって放尿していたことが発覚。同氏は３週間経ったいまも、「汚点」の払拭に奔走している。
　７日には議会公聴会で説明を求められ、警察全体に謝罪。犯人と思われる友人３人に自首するよう勧め、警察車両に対する無礼な損壊事件の捜査に協力していると主張した。
　しかし、これまでのところ要人警護官らによる小出しのリークと、司法相自身の自宅監視カメラの映像によってスキャンダルは拡大の一途をたどっている。
　８月下旬にマスコミに流出した警察の監視カメラの映像によると、深夜にパーティーを抜け出した３人のゲストは明らかに酔った様子で、司法相宅前に止まっていた警護車両に向かって体を預けていた。
　タブロイド紙によると、その後、ファンクイッケンボルヌ氏が笑いながら外に出てきて、放尿のしぐさをまねる映像も存在した。
　憤慨した警察組合はファンクイッケンボルヌ氏の辞任を要求したが、同氏は断固拒否している。
　司法相の上司たるアレクサンダー・デクロー首相もパーティに出席していたが、７日、不謹慎なことは何も見ていないと述べた。首相はファンクイッケンボルヌ氏に辞任を要求していない。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/09/11-14:56）

Guests at Belgian Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne's 50th birthday party had a bit too much to drink and peed on a police van parked outside his home.
By Thursday, the political hangover had lasted more than three weeks, and he was still mopping up the steady drip-drip of revelations.
Van Quickenborne's latest humiliation was being forced to appear before parliament to explain what he knew about what the press has gleefully dubbed pipigate, or pee-gate in English.
At Thursday's hearing he apologised to the country's entire police force, some of whom are investigating the drunken late-night incident that opened the floodgates of scandal.
He insisted he was helping police investigate the disrespectful assault on their vehicle by telling three friends suspected of being the culprits to hand themselves in.
I would like to apologise to all police officers in the country, he told MPs.
I completely understand that this outraged them. This is absolutely unacceptable.
I'm ashamed of these people and what they have done ... I understand that this isn't a pretty spectacle, and I'm not proud to have had to defend myself, he said, insisting that he wanted to stay in his post.
- Police protection -
Van Quickenborne, who lives under police protection after a major drugs gang threatened his family, must now hope he has stemmed the flow of revelations.
But so far the scandal has only gained in strength, fed by a trickle of leaks from his police protectors and by the minister's own home video-surveillance footage.
The basic facts of the incident are: Van Quickenborne turned 50 on August 1 and on the night of August 14 held a big shindig at his home in the town of Kortrijk for dozens of guests.
Prime Minister Alexander de Kroo, Van Quickenborne's boss, was also at the party, but he insisted on Thursday that he had seen nothing untoward. He has not requested his minister's resignation.
The minister's police protection detail had parked their van outside his property.
According to police surveillance footage passed to the Flemish press in late August, three guests left the party late in the evening and, visibly inebriated, relieved themselves against the vehicle.
- Guitar strumming? -
What happened next has not proved so easy to confirm. Tabloid reports suggested that some footage showed Van Quickenborne later coming outside himself, laughing and miming the relevant motions.
Outraged police unions demanded the minister's resignation, but the minister furiously rejected this account.
This week he released his own domestic security camera footage to support his case.
On this recording he is seen escorting another friend out of his home at 4:00am -- hours after the incident -- and swaying backwards in a gesture some interpreted as him mimicking outdoor urination.
Van Quickenborne told MPs he had no memory of the gesture, but suggested it could have been musically inspired.
I play acoustic guitar. Perhaps it was a guitar-strumming movement? he mused.
In the video, the minister is seen bringing his phone out but only, in his account, to take a selfie with his friend, not to record the soiled state of the police vehicle.
As for the final guest, visibly amused by the pre-dawn driveway scene, he had nothing to do with the incidents and remains one of his best friends.