Prime Minister lashes out at France

PM Charles Michel has severely criticised France for the part they played in putting the blame on Belgium in the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks. Michel voiced his discontentment via diplomatic channels last week, but this time he spoke openly in the Belgian media, more particularly in the RTBF TV programme "Les Décodeurs".

Michel highlighted some French examples to prove the French are far from perfect themselves: "In Belgium, we don't have a jungle like in Calais with 6,000 refugees. We don't have murderous attacks by criminal gangs, like in the centre of Marseille."

Michel continued: "We don't have urban districts where police, like in France, don't dare to come because their vehicles are being bombarded with stones. They have indeed quite a lot of extremists who left for Syria and who have come back", Michel told the news programme.

In the aftermath of the Paris terror attacks, the attention quickly shifted to Belgium as it turned out the terrorist plot had a strong Belgian link, but experts point to the fact that it's certainly not a problem of Belgium alone, and that terrorism is an international challenge.

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