Belgian Prime Minister confuses PIGS and BIGS

In a tweet sent from his official account on 11 April, the Belgian Prime Minister admits he just discovered the expression “PIGS”, which he admits to not knowing before (see tweet here and screenshot below).

In fact, sources close to the Belgian leader tell the BJ he has been briefed for the past months about “BIGS”, where the P for Portugal was replaced by a B for Belgium. the acronym as explained to him was aimed to applaud the frontrunners of European financial stabilitya nd growth, the G for Greece having simply become a G for Germany. His inner circle says this was meant initially as a joke but because he never raised it at any of the briefings, they did not dare tell him anymore.

“I really thought he’d spotted it and must admit I was really shocked by his tweet”, said a source close to the Belgian government.

Yves Leterme did not wish to comment.