Herman Van Rompuy has spent his life in politics and became Prime Minister of Belgium and President of the European Council. Widely respected for his balance and wisdom he has never downplayed his spiritual dimension – a writer of haikus – and his Christian faith. In this special conversation with Laurence Freeman recently he shares his views on the pandemic and also on the deep rooted faults in society and institutions that it has highlighted. Unusually for a statesman of his stature, he also shares about his attraction to politics and his earlier ambition and desire to serve the common good. He speaks about the impact on his personal life and the opportunity to slow down and be silent.
Many people wonder: what kind of world we are living in? where are we going? that’s how I also feel: there’s a need for direction, for meaning. What is the meaning of all of this? So, there are, as always, a lot of opportunities during such a crisis. But there are a lot of threats and dangers.
First part: Silence
Second part: A case for global optimism
Last part: Solidarity must be part of the recovery
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About Herman Van Rompuy
Herman Van Rompuy is a Belgian politician, who served as Prime Minister of Belgium from 2008 to 2009 and then as the first permanent President of the European Council from 2009 to 2014. More recently, in 2018, he was one of the speakers at the John Main Seminar 2018, in Belgium addressing the theme Politics and the management of division.
