Front-line Brussels remains a European city

The hopes of the inhabitants of Brussels that the heightened security measures introduced on Saturday in connection with the terrorist threat would be canceled with the start of the working week did not materialize...

The hopes of the inhabitants of Brussels that the heightened security measures introduced on Saturday in connection with the terrorist threat would be canceled with the start of the working week did not materialize.

On Sunday evening, Brussels residents and tourists who were on some business in the very center of the city, in the Grand Place and the stock exchange, witnessed a police operation. The police, along with the elite military, the Ardennes shooters, cordoned off the historic center of Brussels, blocking traffic along the few passing streets. They carried out selective control of cars and pedestrians. Approximately the same picture was observed by the staff correspondent of Novaya Gazeta when passing through the quite prosperous commune of Etterbeek, adjacent to the leading institutions of the EU.

In Brussels, there was a hunt for alleged terrorists who, according to the intelligence services, were walking somewhere around the city with weapons and explosives and were preparing simultaneous shooting at several points at once according to the Paris scenario.

According to local media, they are looking for two suspects, including Salah Abdelslam, who has already become famous in the Paris attacks, from the commune of Molenbeek, neighboring the center of Brussels. True, no one says that the world has converged like a wedge on him and whether it will be possible to reduce the level of terrorist threat if these two are caught. The police pleads not to spread unconfirmed rumors on social networks, but to believe only official reports. The authorities attribute the lack of information to the secrecy needed by the special services. Citizens accustomed to living in an open society, where the secret services are accountable, are perplexed and dissatisfied. Do you have to get used to it?

After another meeting of the crisis headquarters, Prime Minister Charles Michel said at a press conference on Sunday evening that, based on data from the coordination headquarters for situation analysis (OCAM), the emergency measures introduced on Saturday (closure of the metro and underground tram, shopping centers, entertainment venues, cancellation of mass events) remain in effect on Monday. New ones are added to them, related to the beginning of the working week. Namely, the closure of nurseries and kindergartens (which caused a particularly painful controversy in the press and social networks), as well as schools and universities. This is required by the fourth of four possible levels of terrorist threat: "serious and immediate."

The situation is monitored from hour to hour, and precautionary measures can be changed in one direction or another at any time. On Monday morning, the regime will be announced until Tuesday, and so on. Which, of course, irritates Brussels people who are used to planning their day. “We don’t like it either, but we have a responsibility,” the prime minister justifies, promising to lift the restrictions as soon as it becomes possible.

City services have taken measures to prevent a transport collapse due to the closure of the metro and underground tram lines. Instead, bus routes are organized, but some chaos cannot be avoided. The problem is mitigated by the fact that many who usually use public transport to work also have their own car.

Nevertheless, the "capital of Europe" continues to function. The EU Council at the level of ministers of economy and finance, scheduled for Monday, has not been cancelled. As a meeting of the ministers of education of the EU countries. The multi-thousand-strong bureaucratic apparatus of the European Commission is also not dissolved for the holidays.

On Sunday, false alarms evacuated the train station in the town of Mechelen, between Brussels and Antwerp, as well as the editorial office of the Flemish private television company VRT, located in the northern suburbs of Brussels. The media is one of the goals of terrorists, because freedom of the press is one of the main attributes of the Western world they hate.

Newspapers, radio and television find an opportunity to joke even in a sad situation. On Sunday morning, the first program of the state-funded French-language radio RTBF was, as usual on weekends, a comedy show. It was completely devoted to the topic of the day. Journalists and famous actors competed in caustic jokes on the government and intelligence agencies, relaying the irritation of citizens with emergency measures. The theater canceled the Sunday performance, which never happened. Since Saturday, the bar that has never been closed has been closed... They laugh at the terrorists, sometimes lowering their jokes below the belt, laughing at themselves, making fun of death. An inexperienced ear might hear blasphemy in this laughter. This is in Europe, with its, by the standards of a stranger, disgusting political correctness ...