Daily Times

A Belgian minister arrived by bike to a news conference to promote cycling on Tuesday, only to find it had been stolen when he left half an hour later. Ben Weyts, minister of mobility for the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders, unveiled a plan to invest 300 million euros in cycle lanes until 2019, as part of a wider programme to promote alternative modes of transport.

“We left the bike in racks at the station and locked it,” a spokesman for the minister said. “When we got back half an hour later, it was gone.” While Belgium is a country obsessed with cycling as a sport, cars are the main method of commuting to work, leading to some of the worst road congestion in Europe.

The minister had to call his driver to pick him up from the station in Halle, just south of Brussels, the spokesman said, and hoped police would discover the bicycle thief with the help of security camera footage.

Ben Weyts is a Belgian politician affiliated to the N-VA.

He entered the Belgian Chamber of Representatives replacing Herman Van Rompuy on 31 December 2008 and was re-elected in 2010.

In 2011, he became the vice-president of his party, the N-VA. He held this party office until 2014.

In July 2014, Weyts became Flemish Minister of Mobility and Public Works, Brussels Periphery, Tourism & Animal Welfare in the 2014-2019 Bourgeois Government.