Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo
De Croo’s aide hospitalized after opening a letter containing strychnine, a potentially fatal poison. Revelation takes place two days after the arrest of a man for threats with a knife in front of the prime minister’s office.
The Brussels Prosecutor’s Office reported this Wednesday that a substance sent last November to government buildings, including the office of Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, was strychnine, a potentially fatal poison.
According to Belgian press reports, an unidentified member of De Croo’s cabinet had to be hospitalized after suffering injuries to his hands while opening one of the letters.
On November 22, two days after similar packages were found in the office of Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden and the headquarters of the state security service, another person was placed in quarantine as a precaution but was not injured.
Strychnine, an odorless white powder, is used as rat poison and, in humans, it can cause muscle spasms, cardiac arrest, organ failure and even death.
A spokesman for De Croo said on Thursday that the poisoned letters had left the prime minister and his team stunned. “Our colleague, fortunately, is fine now and, at the time, all procedures were followed to the letter to avoid further damage,” he said, “but this cannot be the new normal.”
Suspect with knife outside De Croo’s office
The revelation of the alleged poisoning attempt came two days after the arrest of a man armed with a knife in front of De Croo’s office in Brussels. The prime minister was not there at the time of the incident. Security guards arrested the man after he pulled out a knife and threatened them with it.
The attacker, aged 29, was known to the police and possibly suffers from mental disorders. He is being investigated for attempted murder and illegal possession of a weapon. Authorities stated that his motivation has not yet been clarified.
The suspect had already been involved in a similar incident in April last year, when he tried to attack a security guard at the United States embassy in the Belgian capital with a knife. An investigation was opened, and the attacker was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
The incidents occur in a context of increased threats and acts of violence against political representatives in Europe. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was assassinated last year, and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was attacked in a square in Copenhagen.
In 2023, the Council of Europe warned of an increase in violence against elected representatives at local and regional level.
