A total of 24 politicians faced threats last year, according to outgoing Home Affairs Minister Annelies Verlinden (CD&V), as quoted in La Libre Belgique and La Dernière Heure on Friday.
When a political figure files a complaint with the local police, they liaise with the National Crisis Centre (NCCN). Based on the information provided, the NCCN opens a "threatened individuals" case file. The NCCN will then request assessments from the Coordination Unit for Threat Analysis to determine the severity of the threat from extremist or terrorist groups, and/or from the Federal Police if the threat originates from criminal activities.
In 2021, the NCCN dealt with 16 such threat cases involving a total of 19 individuals in the "political figures" category. In 2022, the NCCN opened 11 cases involving 13 individuals and last year, 16 cases were opened affecting 24 individuals.
Some of these case files have been closed. For the 21 currently active files involving 26 individuals, threat mitigation measures remain operational. In some instances, files have remained open for over a year.
The number of new cases therefore remains relatively stable. The number of threatened individuals is higher than the number of case files as several individuals can be involved in the same case.
