“It happened.” That was how many Brussels residents felt when terrorist attacks struck on March 22. After all, they had been mentally preparing for such a blow for months.

The government had already locked down the city in November 2015, declaring it under “imminent” threat. This halted all life for four long days — a life-size test of the state of exception. Since then soldiers colonized the streets of the Belgian capital and other major cities like Antwerp.

Brussels was a likely target. After all, Belgium played an important role in the lives of the organizers and suspected organizers of recent European attacks. The Brussels attacks were perfectly timed. Just a few days earlier, Salah Abdeslam — one of the main suspects in the Paris attacks — was arrested. Liberal prime minister Charles Michel and the interior minister Jan Jambon (a member of N-VA, the Flemish nationalist party) gloried in the arrest, taking a selfie showing themselves with a group of soldiers.