If you found your way to this post from my Belgium post, then welcome back! If you found this article because it somehow sparked your curiousity then let me fill you in. About a year ago I was traveling around Europe visiting some friends and while I was visiting the exchange student that stayed with my family when I was in high school, I met the Prime Minister of Belgium, Alexander De Croo. I will preface this by saying he is no longer the Prime Minister. There was an election last year and a new government was formed this February, but he was Prime Minister at the time of this story!
Anyway here is how this happened. I flew into Brussels and it was the first destination on my big European trip so I definitely was tired and a big jet lagged. Wina, said exchange student, picked me up for the airport. On the one hour drive to her family’s home we were catching up as well as talking about the plans for my ten day in Belgium and that is when she said, “Do you want to meet the Prime Minister tomorrow?” What?! That was literally my reaction. I couldn’t tell if she was serious but obviously she was cause that’s not something some one jokes about but I couldn’t tell exactly how serious this was
She was being serious. Alexander De Croo comes from the same town as Wina. It is a small town called Brakel, which means everyone knows everyone. Wina knows him, but her parents know him better, so much so that her dad is his chauffeur. Yep. But you can imagine my shock when she was talking about how she was messaging the Prime Minister because I was coming and she wanted to show me a certain government building that she wasn’t sure was open or not to visitors at that moment. That’s just something that would never happen in the United States. Nobody just casually has a way to contact the President of the United States.
Anyway Wina never received a response from him so she brought her mom into it. That’s when things were out of Wina’s hands because her mom really did know him and did get a response from him. Suddenly I wasn’t seeing this building but I was getting a personal meeting with the Prime Minister, the day after I arrived! It was an actual meeting, which I will get into later. My point is this isn’t like when someone says they met a certain celebrity or public figure when they were out and just casually ran into them and asked for a picture. I had my name on a list and a time slot in his calendar. It was insane!
I spent the rest of that evening and the next morning planning what I was going to wear and say and telling all of my family about it. Everyone was as shocked as me. I felt so unprepared. I picked out the nicest outfit I had, but I still had no idea what to say to him or ask him. I just knew that if this was a year earlier and I was still in college with all of the other International Studies and Political Science majors they would be all over this. They would all have way better questions than me. As someone who studied world politics and history I should have had so many questions, but I was so jet lagged and in shock that pretty much the best thing I could come up with was asking if he had ever met any of the US presidents.
He did have a lot to say though, so I didn’t feel like I needed to ask a lot of questions. Before I get into that first let me explain my arrival to the government building that the prime minister works in. Wina drove us into Brussels to 16 rue de la Loi, which has been the headquarters of the Belgian government since 1944.
The entrance was not the grand one you would expect. It is not like the White House. It was just a little turn off of one of the main roads in the Royal Quarter. There were guards at the entrance who let us in and Wina had to speak to them in French (Dutch is her first language.) I am not sure exactly what she said and I know she was a little nervous about the whole thing but they let us in and we parked our car in the little parking lot to the building.
We had a bit of time to spare before our meeting so we left the car and walked around a little bit. We started in Parc de Bruxelles which is surrounded by many of the government buildings of Belgium as well as foreign embassies.
Then we made out way to Mont des Arts which is more of an artsy park with its sculptures and a great place for a picture with its view of the city. From there we made out way to the Royal Palace, which we were unable to go inside of, but that is ok because we got plenty of great pictures from the outside and we didn’t have much time to spare anyway.
I would later spend more time in Brussels but this day trip definitely gave me a glance into the political side of Belgium and its importance in world and European politics. Walking around the Royal Quarter of Brussels reminded me a bit of National Mall in Washington D.C. I’d never been anywhere with such a nice park surrounded by so many historically and politically significant buildings.
Once we returned we entered the building and checked in at the desk. They offered us drinks and to take any coats and bags we didn’t want to carry around. The entrance was very glamorous and of course had portraits of important Belgian leaders and royalty. That’s where the Prime Minister met us. It was so nonchalant and Wina talked to him as I would to anyone I would be meeting up with from my small town.
After introducing myself he began to give us a tour of the building. There were many floors and he took us to most important ones. The second floor is where most of the work was being done.
There were lots of offices on this floor and he ended up taking us to the Council of Ministers room. This room is also referred to as the Marie Popelin Room in honor of the women who was very influential in the feminist movement in Belgium. It was given this name by Prime Minister Alexander De Croo. He explained the purpose of this room and showed me which chair was his. I did get to in fact sit in it and take a picture. I was starting to question what I was doing with myself because in this moment I felt like an American diplomat. Maybe I was supposed to go into foreign policy after all.
He then showed us to the basement which is the press room. The room is nicknamed ‘The Bunker’ as it was once built to serve such a purpose. This is the room where Belgians would see the Prime Minister talking on their televisions. It was very interesting as I got to hear about what it was like to give a press conference and the importance of having a sign language interpreter during the conferences.
From there he took us back up to the 2nd floor where he showed us his office and we talked for a bit. This is where I got to tell him more about my own life and where I was from. He told me the stories behind the decor of his office and other stories about being the Prime Minister of Belgium. He specifically talked about the upcoming election and what that is like in Belgium, so I did learn a bit about how the government works in Belgium. He talked about the visit of Barack Obama which is when I asked him if he met him. He did not but he told me he did meet Joe Biden and told me about his experience with him. This was also when he asked about my plans in Belgium and Brussels. The first thing he recommended in Brussels was Manneken Pis.
Our meeting lasted about 45 minutes. We took a picture with Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and then we were on our way. We left the same way we came and I felt so important. I probably had such a big ego boost after that, but that’s ok because I just had the coolest experience of my life.
The rest of my trip was defined by this experience. My very first day of my 3 week trip in Europe and I already met the Prime Minister of Belgium. It set very high expectations for the rest of the trip that were very much met. I was never disappointed.
I will say though it was very funny to spend the rest of this trip meeting people and catching up with others and telling them about this. Wina told all of her friends of this before I met any of them. One of them gave me a hard time. “I am sure you are a great person, but why am I paying for my prime minister to meet with a random girl from America?” he said jokingly. “I don’t know either, trust me!” I’d respond. I had no business meeting with the leader of a prominent European country, but I did it. Now I have the best story. It is still my fun fact I tell people when I need a random anecdote. I fear I will never have a story to beat this one.
The Journal of Wanderlust 