The Brussels Urban Summit that took place this week has seen the region's Secretary of State for Urbanism Pascal Smet face intense criticism about the presence of the ultra-conservative mayor of Tehran, 14 Iranians, and Russian officials.
On Friday afternoon, Smet made his case at length to Brussels MPs, explaining in detail his line of action on the issue.
However, as a member of the Brussels government, he found himself alone in front of the very large number of opposition and majority MPs who had come to hold him to account at the plenary session of the Brussels Parliament.
In particular, Smet said that he had not exerted any pressure on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and maintained that he would have withdrawn the controversial invitations if he had received a notice from the federal bodies responsible for issuing visas.
He affirmed that parliament had been given all the documents relating to the exchanges he had concerning invitations and the issue of visas to Iranian representatives. The minister cited the global nature of the conference which gathered officials from 120 cities worldwide.
He reiterated that he had had no particular contact with the Iranian representatives.
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But Smet clearly failed to convince all his majority partners, several of whom have joined the opposition to express their bitterness at not having heard a request for an apology to the victims of the Iranian regime and the Iranian diaspora.
At the end of the lengthy topical debate, parliamentary president Rachid Madrane (PS) suspended the sitting in order to quickly convene a general affairs committee to examine the documents handed over by Smet.
In the opposition, several voices were heard calling for his resignation.
