BRUSSELS

A political controversy has erupted in Belgium following renewed attention to documents linked to the Epstein case that reportedly referenced the government of ex-Prime Minister Charles Michel, daily La Libre reported on Sunday.

The debate intensified after Belgium's Francophone Socialist Party (PS) shared a social media post highlighting media reports that mention the Michel government, then a coalition between the liberal Reformist Movement (MR) party and the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), in newly released Epstein-related files.

The Justice Department released millions of Epstein-related documents on Jan. 30 under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed by US President Donald Trump last November. Jeffrey Epstein died in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

In its post, the PS argued that the documents go beyond sexual crimes committed by Epstein and instead point to broader networks of political influence and coordination.

The party pointed to reported messages between Epstein and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, in which Bannon claimed that the Belgian government collapsed shortly after his 2018 speech in Brussels.

"Invited to Brussels, Bannon delivers a violent speech against the Global Compact for Migration in front of Belgian nationalists and extremists. The political climate in our country is already heated. He deliberately stokes the flames. Shortly afterwards, the N-VA leaves the coalition," the party said.

"In his messages to Epstein, Bannon boasts. He claims that the Belgian government fell a few hours after his intervention," it added.

The Michel government fell in December 2018 after the N-VA withdrew from the coalition over disagreements on the migration pact.

The PS described Belgium as having served as a "test case" for a wider international far-right strategy, warning of continued attempts by extremist networks to influence democratic institutions.

The social media post prompted strong reactions from other political parties, particularly from the liberal MR, which rejected any suggestion of a connection between the former government and Epstein's crimes.

MR lawmaker Stephanie Cortisse accused the PS of creating a misleading association between the Michel government and Epstein's sex trafficking case, stating that the documents only show that a third party referenced Belgian political events in communications with Epstein.

Centrist party Les Engages also criticized the PS, warning against what it called "questionable shortcuts" and arguing that linking a domestic political episode to a criminal case risks fueling populism rather than countering extremism.

In response to the backlash, the PS said its intention was not to accuse Belgian political figures of criminal wrongdoing, but to draw attention to what it described as transnational far-right networks and their alleged efforts to destabilize democratic systems.

The party maintained that references to Belgium and the Michel government appear in the Epstein files, as previously reported by the media, and raised questions about possible foreign interference, the role of nationalist actors, and the adequacy of political safeguards.