By John-Henry Westen
Van Rompuy is to step down as prime minister so he can take up
his new post on January 1, 2010.
While Van Rompuy is rumored to be a devout Catholic, his
recent talk of "global management of the planet" has caused some
concern in conservative circles. Speaking at his first press conference
after his election as President of the European Union, Van Rompuy said:
"2009 is also the first year of global governance with the establishment
of the G20 in the middle of a financial crisis. The climate conference in
At the same time, Van Rompuy has a history of support for
Christian values and
Van Rompuy's history as a devout Christian who has even
written books on the defense of the right to life, could easily lead to great
hopes for the future of the EU. However, Paul Belien, editor of the
pro-life and pro-family Brussels Journal who knows the new EU President
personally begs to differ. Belien warns that "Herman is like Saruman, the
wise wizard in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, who went over to the other side. He
used to care about the things we cared about. But no longer.
He has built himself a high tower from where he rules over all of us."
Belien, who met and conversed with Van Rompuy several times
in the 1980s, described the EU leader prior to his going over to "the dark
side" this way: "Van Rompuy, a conservative Catholic, born in 1947,
was active in the youth section of the Flemish Christian-Democrat Party. He
wrote books and articles about the importance of traditional values, the role
of religion, the protection of the unborn life, the Christian roots of
By 1988, however, Van Rompuy was Leader of the governing
Christian Democrats. And in 1990 the Belgian Parliament voted in a very
liberal abortion bill. Belien relates that at the time Belgian King
Baudouin resigned rather than sign the bill, but was
reinstated later by Parliament.
As Belien describes it: "In April 1990, the King did in
fact abdicate over the abortion issue, and the Christian-Democrat Party, led by
Herman Van Rompuy, who had always prided himself on being a good Catholic, had
one of Europe's most liberal abortion bills signed by the college of ministers,
a procedure provided by the Belgian Constitution for situations when there is
no King. Then they had the King voted back on the throne the following
day."
Belien's revelations of the King's brief abdication over the
abortion vote were published in the Wall Street Journal, and he was fired from
the Belgian newspaper Gazet van Antwerpen under pressure from the government,
which was attempting to keep the matter secret.
Belien describes many other political shenanigans engaged in
by Van Rompuy after he became the Prime Minister of Belgium. But perhaps
the most telling observation left by Belien is that Von Rompuy, "kept
publishing intellectual and intelligent books, but instead of defending the
concept of the good, he now defended the concept of 'the lesser evil.'"