Julius Caesar as a source of inspiration
The scene is a reference with multiple inputs. During the campaign, the leader of the N-VA, threatened in the polls by Jos D’Haese, the rising figure of the PTB/PVDA, had declared on numerous occasions that the vote in Antwerp would be, for voters, akin to a choice between Rome and Moscow. Him or chaos: this is a pre-electoral positioning that Bart De Wever has already used on numerous occasions, and always with success. He was so sure of his victory that he thought about how to stage it several weeks in advance. Letting himself be inspired by Julius Caesar – the idol of his youth before preferring his adopted son Augustus. “Caesar was first and foremost a showman“, he declared in 2018 in an interview with the magazine Wilfried.
Bart De Wever bought the eagle on the internet. He would have paid, according to the Flemish press, more than 600 euros. It was also he who had the idea of engraving the letters SPQA on the pole. Or the Antwerp version of the acronym SPQR for Roman Senate and Peoplewhich means in Latin The Senate and the Roman people and which was the motto of the Roman Empire. He may have thought for a moment of wearing the eagle himself. But the object weighs 11 kilos. He preferred to ask his eldest son, a regular at the weight rooms, to do it despite his aversion to putting his children on stage.
The historical reference was obviously not surprising. His passion for ancient Rome is well known to the general public. And documented. His office at Antwerp City Hall is decorated with various objects that directly allude to it: a centurion’s sword and helmet, a well-displayed bibliography of Augustus. His career is littered with Latin expressions that he uses to show his advantage. The very afternoon of Sunday, October 13, he appeared before the press who were gathered in front of his home, in a full jacket with cufflinks on which appeared the effigy of a Roman emperor. It’s obsessive.
Bart De Wever won his bet in Antwerp, the N-VA will lead the city with Vooruit
A TV hoax
However, should we see major political messages in these historical references? Bart De Wever is careful not to give the keys to interpreting them. As if he liked to lead the public on false trails. On Sunday evening, some did not fail to recall that Mussolini and Hitler had also appropriated the Roman eagle, to magnify the power of their totalitarian regime. It was the spokesperson for the president of the N-VA who had to prudently cut all ties with the extreme right. For him, if Bart De Wever used the Roman standard, it is because Antwerp has a lot of ancient Rome in it. Don’t they say that the legendary Brabo who cut off the hand of the giant Antigone and threw it into the Scheldt was a soldier of Julius Caesar? As for the eagle, it appears on a coat of arms decorating the facade of the town hall.
The scene that Bart De Wever performed on Sunday evening is more of a television hoax or a teenage joke than the expression of a major political message. His appearance as a panda 10 years ago in a show on VRT was a bit of the same water. The future Prime Minister of Belgium likes to pose as an intellectual. But he also loves to break his own image and replace it with a caricature. Even if it means using cumbersome symbols.
