Racist or antisemitic attitudes are not openly expressed or even supported by any but a very small minority of the Belgian population. Nevertheless, some of the xenophobic political tendencies of extra-parliamentary far-right groups have influenced the policies of mainstream right-wing parties.
At a time, however, when the country seems to be experiencing a breakdown of trust in the political and judicial system - particularly in the aftermath of the paedophile murder case of Marc Dutroux and the subsequent evidence of a possible high-level cover-up - the possibility of latent xenophobic and/or antisemitic tendencies is a cause for concern.
Demographic data
Total population: 10.2 million (55 per cent Flemish, i.e. Dutch-speaking; 33 per cent Walloon, i.e. French-speaking)
Jewish population: 30,000-35,000 (mostly in Brussels and Antwerp)
Other minorities: immigrants, principally from Morocco (145,000), Turkey (88,300) and Italy, make up 12 per cent of the population
Religion: Belgian law officially recognizes Judaism, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Anglicanism, Islam, and Greek and Russian Orthodoxy, all of which receive government subsidies for the salaries, retirement and lodging of religious officials as well as the renovation of religious buildings
Political data
Political system: parliamentary democracy and, since 1993, a federal state comprising three regions (Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels), ten provinces and three linguistic communities (French, Flemish and German). The historical, cultural and linguistic differences between Flanders and Wallonia remain contentious.
Head of state: King Albert II (since August 1993)
Government: a coalition of the Dutch-speaking Christelijke Volkspartij (CVP, Christian People's Party) and Socialistische Partij (SP, Socialist Party), and the French-speaking Parti Social Chrétien (PSC, Christian Social Party) and Parti Socialiste (PS, Socialist Party), under Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene (CVP) (since March 1992)
Other political parties: Vlaamse Liberalen en Demokraten (VLD, Flemish Liberals and Democrats); Parti réformateur libéral (PRL, Liberal Reform Party); Vlaams Blok (VB, Flemish Bloc); Volksunie (People's Union); the Flemish and Walloon ecology parties Anders Gaan Leven (AGALEV, Live Differently) and ECOLO (Ecologist Party); the French-speaking Front National (FN, National Front, previously known as Front National Belge, FNB); and the Front Démocratique des Francophones (FDF, Democratic Front of French-Speakers)
Next general election (every four years): July 1999
Economic data
Inflation 1998: averaging under 2 per cent
Unemployment: there is much public discontent over the high unemployment (30 per cent of young people in some areas in 1996), largely the result of government spending cuts to ensure Belgium's qualification for the first wave of entry into the European single currency in line with economic and monetary union (EMU). At the end of October 1998 unemployment nationally was 15.1 per cent.
Currency: US$1=37.6 Belgian francs (FrB) (April 1998)
Antisemitism in Belgium was most virulent in the 1930s when the Jewish population was largely made up of immigrants, exiles and political refugees. At that time the fascist parliamentary parties - the French-speaking Rex party and the Vlaams Nationaal Verbond (VNV, Flemish National Union) - were openly antisemitic, and supported the Nazi occupation of Belgium during the Second World War. The VNV campaigned in Antwerp under the slogan 'Antwerp Is Ours! Jews Out!' Of 25,257 Belgian Jews deported during the war - almost all of them to Auschwitz - 1,205 subsequently returned.
Some 500,000 Belgians were investigated for alleged collaboration with the Nazis after the war. A total of 3,000 were condemned to death by military courts. Most had their sentences commuted to prison terms; 242 were executed. Tens of thousands of others were jailed, fined or lost their civil rights and property. Many were pardoned by an appeals court in the 1960s although some are still unable to claim a pension.
In 1952 probably the first French Holocaust-denial work, by Maurice Bardèche, was translated into Dutch by Karel Dillen, who later became the leader of the anti-immigrant VB (see Parties, organizations, movements). Articles denouncing an alleged Judeo-Communist conspiracy were published in the Flemish Catholic daily De Standaard during the Cold War.
There was a marked increase in Holocaust-denial activity between 1976 and 1991, with the establishment of a publishing house and foundations dedicated to this purpose.
Recent years have seen the development of a far-right movement in Belgium ranging from anti-immigrant parties, such as the VB and the FN, which have had increasing electoral success since the 1991 parliamentary elections, to neo-Nazi groups (see Parties, organizations, movements).
In June 1998 the Flanders regional parliament adopted the Suykerbuyklaw (Compensation Bill) in a move to award compensation to Flemish men and women convicted as collaborators after the Second World War. The Walloon government, francophone political parties and the Walloon parliament joined forces to oppose the bill, which proposes annual state hand-outs of US$640 to surviving 'victims of repression' and small-scale collaborators and their immediate families for the rest of their lives. The vote re-opened a traumatic chapter in Belgium's history, unleashing the ethnic and linguistic tensions that lay beneath the surface of daily life.
Belgium remains a country of immigration. The acquisition of Belgian nationality plays an important role in the integration process of immigrants, and reforms of the Belgian nationality code in 1991 (granting automatic nationality to third-generation immigrants and quasi-automatic nationality to second-generation immigrants) and in 1995 (creating a single, simplified form of naturalization) have assisted this process.
The government co-operates with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other humanitarian organizations in assisting refugees, and the government provides first asylum, that is the granting of temporary asylum for refugees hoping to relocate in a third country. In 1997, 9,753 applications for first asylum were filed - a reduction of 326 from the previous year - and 1,335 applicants were granted permanent residence.
Prior to March 1995 the government had granted 5,000-6,000 refugees from the former Yugoslavia 'displaced person' status whilst their cases were being considered. In September 1997 some 4,400 displaced persons were still resident in Belgium. The following November the government announced that it would issue temporary residence permits to 4,000 Bosnian refugees.
The far right increasingly dictates the terms of discussion about immigration: debate on the 'immigrant problem' has permeated mainstream political movements, whose leaders have to some degree copied the xenophobic rhetoric of the VB and the FN (see Parties, organizations, movements). While leaders of mainstream parties seem to have adopted many of the far-right immigration policies, their proposals tend to be couched in more acceptable rhetoric. The July 1996 legislation on the right of asylum - introduced by the minister for home affairs, Johan Vanden Lanotte, and supported by most of the CVP, PSC and social democratic deputies (including left-wing PS and SP deputies and senators) - included twelve of the VB's immigration policies.
The monitoring and investigation of immigrants and foreigners in Belgium - often breaching laws on privacy and data protection - by police and reserve officers of the armed forces has become commonplace and is supported by the interior minister.
An anti-racism law penalizes the incitement of discrimination, hate or violence based on race, ethnicity or nationality. The Centre pour l'Égalité des Chances et la Lutte contre le Racisme (CECLCR, Centre for Equal Opportunities and the Struggle against Racism), a government organization which investigates complaints of racial discrimination, received 1,100 calls during the first eight months of 1997, 800 of which were complaints about racist incidents, some of which have led to mediation or court cases.
The anti-racist groups CECLCR, the Ligue des Droits de l'Homme (LDH, League of Human Rights), the Mouvement contre le Racisme, l'Antisémitisme et la Xénophobie (MRAX, Movement against Racism, Antisemitism and Xenophobia), together with the Service des Droit des Jeunes (SDJ, Service for the Rights of Young People), have been drawing public attention to the racism that exists within Belgium's law enforcement agencies. In November 1997 MRAX hosted a press conference to highlight abuse or violence committed by law enforcement agents against foreigners. Among materials presented at the conference was a survey of complaints received in 1996 by MRAX, LDH and SDJ. Of a total of 117 complaints (largely in Brussels and Antwerp), most concerned racist or xenophobic insults, maltreatment, cruelty, arbitrary confiscation of property and excessive fines.
In July 1997 the European Court of Justice ruled that Belgium had failed to implement an EU law allowing nationals from other EU states to stand and vote in local elections. The EU directive, which can be implemented only if approved by a two-thirds parliamentary majority, has been blocked by Flemish politicians who fear, among other things, that the law will lead to voting rights for non-EU nationals living in Belgium (see also Parties, organizations, movements).
Mainstream political life
The Flemish nationalist VB is an openly racist party based in Brussels and led by Frank Vanhecke. Founded as an electoral alliance of nationalist and anti-communist groups to contest the 1978 elections as the Vlaamse Volkspartij (Flemish People's Party), the VB was renamed and launched as a political party in May 1979. The party is the ideological heir to the pre-war right-wing movement that collaborated with Nazi Germany, and it has succeeded in combining Flemish separatist nationalism with opposition to immigration. The VB advocates an independent Flemish state with Brussels as its capital, campaigns for a total amnesty for Nazi collaborators and blames immigrants for unemployment, crime and the alleged decline in moral values. Former Belgian Waffen-SS members and known antisemitic activists are a marginal component of its militant wing.
The VB has become established on the Belgian political scene and is now represented at all institutional levels: there are 11 VB federal deputies; 5 senators; 17 members of the Flemish regional parliament; 2 deputies in the Brussels regional parliament; 203 local councillors; 42 councillors in the social security bureau; 2 deputies in the European Parliament; and 1 VB representative on the controlling body of the Vlaamse Radio en Televisie Omroep (VRT), the Flemish radio and television corporation.
The party's leaders have established an efficient internal organization, allowing for the formation of a strong militant base (with an estimated 1,000 activists). The VB offers its 9,000 members a real 'party life' including training, induction, invitations to meetings and information days. It comprises more than 180 local sections and produces a monthly propaganda sheet, specialized publications (for young people, managers and party workers) and about a dozen local papers (see Publications and media). The party receives an annual state subsidy of almost BFr50 million (US$1.33 million).
The following are the most important organizations within the VB: the Vlaams-Blok Jongeren (VBJ, Flemish Bloc Youth) is the party's youth movement, founded by Filip Dewinter in 1987; the Studiedienst (Study Service) develops and disseminates ideological material within the party; the Vereniging van Vlaams Blok Mandatarissen (VVDM, Association of VB Members of Parliament) shapes party ideology; the Nationalistisch Vormingsinstituut (NVI, Insitute for Nationalist Educational Institute) provides training through lectures and seminars; the Dienst Propaganda (Propaganda Service), led by former member of parliament Xavier Buissert, deals with the dissemination of propaganda material, including literature, stickers and CDs.
Following Karel Dillen's retirement in 1996 as party chairman (a position he held since 1978), Frank Vanhecke's nomination to succeed him ended months of in-fighting. Vanhecke, a one-time member of the VBJ, served as secretary-general of the far-right Technical Group of the European Right in the European Parliament from 1989 to 1994.
In the most recent legislative elections (May 1995), 12 per cent of Flemish-speaking voters supported the VB. In Brussels the party received 3 per cent of the vote, making it the largest Flemish party in the capital. The party's electoral success is to some extent regionally defined: it polled 28 per cent in the 1994 local elections in Antwerp.
In February 1997 the VB severed ties with member Jeroen Mol after he staged a grenade attack on his home and claimed it was the work of a left-wing group (Militant Left). Mol had been a key contact between the VBJ and Voorpost (see below). In August 1996 Mol stabbed himself and blamed Militant Left for his injury.
In April 1997 the VB distributed 2.8 million leaflets in Dutch-speaking areas and in Brussels in an attempt to influence the CVP's May 1997 vote on the right of EU-nationals to vote in Belgian local elections (see Racism and xenophobia). The VB leaflets called on individuals to contact the CVP directly and register their opposition.
In an attempt to cultivate links with the Front national (FN) in France, the VB invited Bruno Mégret to Antwerp in December 1997 to lecture on 'Vitrolles as a model for local administration' (Vitrolles is governed by the FN: see France). The party also launched a propaganda campaign in Brussels in June 1997 to win French-speaking support.
The recruitment of Johan Demol, in particular, was expected to boost the party profile and its popularity in the capital. Demol joined the VB after he was suspended from his position as head of the police force in Schaerbeek, a Brussels suburb, following the May 1997 publication in the weekly Solidaire of evidence of his earlier link to the neo-Nazi group Front de la Jeunesse (Youth Front), the former youth section of the Parti des Forces Nouvelles (PFN, Party of New Forces). These revelations confirmed an earlier (1996) report in the newspaper De Morgen, which Demol subsequently denied. In October 1997 Demol was reinstated as head of the Schaerbeek force, sparking local protests (see Countering antisemitism).
Far-right Flemish parties
Vlaams Volksbeweging (VVB, Flemish People's Movement) is the oldest populist organization in Flanders and one of the principal organizers of the annual August Diksmuide pilgrimage. Although the pilgrimage was originally set up to commemorate Flemish soldiers who died during the First World War, it has gradually, since the 1970s, become an international rallying point for neo-Nazis (although only on the fringes of the main event). Over the last couple of years, many neo-Nazis who planned to take part in these fringe activities have been arrested before the pilgrimage. In August 1997 the seventieth annual Diksmuide pilgrimage took place, near the river Yzer.
Voorpost (Outpost) was formed in 1976 as a Flemish nationalist direct-action group. Led by the VB member of parliament Francis Van den Eynde, Voorpost calls for a combined Dutch and Flemish state, and disseminates neo-Nazi and Holocaust-denial propaganda.
The Nationalistische Studenten Vereniging (NSV, Union of Nationalist Students) is a nationalist student organization founded in 1976. Its views are anti-communist, pro-apartheid and antisemitic. In 1982 the NSV started a group for school students, the Nationalistisch Jong Studenten Verbond (NJSV, Nationalist Young Students Union), which consists of young people from the VB, skinheads and neo-Nazis. It has links with the British Combat 18 (see United Kingdom), and was previously involved in violent commando operations against left-wing groups, particularly in the town of Bruges. In 1996 the NJSV circulated stickers with the slogan 'Revisionnisme is geen misdaad' (Revisionism is not a crime).
Following the judicial review in January 1996 of the execution of the Nazi collaborator Irma Laplasse (which upheld that Laplasse was guilty of treason for betraying members of the Resistance to the Germans), a group of VB sympathizers founded the Stichting Irma Laplasse (Irma Laplasse Foundation). The group, based in Turnhout (near Antwerp), defends the memory of former collaborators with the Nazi occupation.
The Vlaamse Nationaal Jeugdverbond (VNJ, National Flemish Youth Movement), founded in 1961 by a Nazi veteran, is closely allied with the VB. At annual VNJ summer camps, 'counsellors' train boys, wearing uniforms of brown shirts, black trousers and boots, to march in military fashion.
Founded in 1972 the Taal Aktie Komite (TAK, Committee for the Defence of Language) opposes the presence of French-speakers in Flanders, often violently. In common with all far-right Flemish movements, it campaigns for an amnesty for former Nazi collaborators.
The Kring voor het Onderzoek naar de Socialistische en Multi-culturele Ondermijning van onze Samenleving (KOSMOS, Circle Investigating the Destruction of Community by Socialism and Multiculturalism) is a clandestine grouping. It maintains records on its opponents and, in a column in a VB monthly publication, denounces left-wing organizations.
The Vlaamse Jongeren Mechelen (VJM, Flemish Youth of Mechelen), created in 1994, is named after a town located between Brussels and Antwerp. Its membership numbers some thirty militants who have close links with Voorpost and the VNJ (see above) and the French-speaking neo-Nazi groups BIS and Assaut (see below). The VJM publishes the newsletter Nationalistische Agenda (Nationalist Agenda) and organizes lectures on ultra-nationalist movements in Europe.
Other Flemish neo-Nazi organizations include: the Volksnationalistische Partij (VNP), founded in 1994 by VB dissidents; the skinhead groups Adler, Awake, Autonome Nationalisten (Autonomous Nationalists), Excalibur/Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler (LAH). In addition, a small group of neo-Nazis, the Wehrwolf-Verbond (Werewolf Alliance), first appeared in Antwerp in 1996 and publishes the antisemitic journal Weerstand (Resistance). All these organizations have close links with neo-Nazi movements in Europe, North America and South Africa, as well as with the international network of neo-Nazi skinheads.
Far-right French-speaking parties
The French-speaking far right has a long tradition of internal divisions. Between 1985 and 1991, the Front National Belge (FNB, Belgian National Front), led since its foundation by Daniel Féret and Georges Matagne, was the most significant far-right party in French-speaking Belgium. With a nationalist, monarchist and anti-immigrant outlook, the party was supported across the entire francophone political spectrum as well as by a number of neo-Nazi groups. The FNB's vote rose from 0.5 per cent in 1985 to 0.9 per cent in 1987 and to 4.2 per cent in 1991. One member of parliament was elected in 1991, and the FNB won its first seat in the 1994 European elections with a 2.9 per cent share of the national vote, and a 7.9 per cent share in Wallonia. By 1995, however, the FNB had lost half of its seventy-two local councillors to dissident groups.
In September 1995 the FNB split into two factions and both factions fought for the use of the FNB acronym. Féret retained the leadership of the Front National Belge (which subsequently became the FN), while Marguerite Bastien, a member of the federal parliament, created an offshoot party called the Front Nouveau de Belgique (FNB, New Front of Belgium). The new faction is made up of Front National Belge dissident groups, including Alliance Radicale (Radical Alliance), Droite Nationale (National Right) and Front Régional Wallon (Walloon Regional Front), several groups hostile to Féret, including Club de Beffroi, a splinter of Agir and Unie (see below), defectors from the PSC and the PRL, and Robert Steuckers, formerly of the French-based Groupement de recherche et d'études pour la civilisation européenne (GRECE, Research and Study Group for European Civilization, see France) and leader since 1981 of the Belgian Nouvelle Droite (ND, New Right), a shadowy network of far-right groups. Despite the fact that Bastien's party follows Le Pen's party line more closely than Féret's, Le Pen withdrew his support from the new party early in 1996 under pressure from the VB (which has been closely associated with the French FN for several years: see France).
Like the VB the new FNB has a tight party structure, and is subdivided into several sections. There is a very small Nationaal Front (NF, National Front) for the Flemish, the director of which is a former departmental head of the VB. Front Nouveau des Jeunes (FNJ, New Youth Front), the youth section of the FNB, has attracted members from the neo-Nazi group Assaut (see below). École des Cadres (Cadre School), a 'leadership training school', provides the party with future leaders and was established through an initiative of Gérard Prévort, the former chief of the movement Ordre Nouveau Belgique (New Order of Belgium). The Département-Accueil-Organisation (DAO, Department for Welcome and Organization) is responsible for security at meetings and for the party's leaders. The Service de Documentation monitors the activities of left-wing organizations, trade unions and anti-fascist activists. A congress of the FNB was held in February 1997.
Like Féret's FN, the FNB suffers from party divisions, and several town councillors have left the party. In December 1996, the head of the Liège area, Hubert Defourny, was expelled from the leadership. Since then he has relaunched Référendum, a movement he founded in 1995 (see below).
Several Christian fundamentalist groups support the new FNB: Belgique et Chrétienté (Belgium and Christianity), the Ligue Chrétienne Belge (Christian League of Belgium), the Rassemblement Patriotique (Patriotic Rally), and the more clandestine Milice de Jésus-Christ (see Religious antisemitism).
Assaut (Attack, see above), an almost defunct extra-parliamentary grouping founded in 1988, was led by Hervé Van Laethen who was also head of security and political propaganda in the FNB. Criminal proceedings against some Assaut members and the death of its deputy leader, Yannick Stoefs, in 1993 led to the dissolution of the group in September 1993. Van Laethen and other activists were implicated in an attack on an anti-racist stall in Liège; other members were imprisoned for eight months and heavily fined for assault and criminal damage for a series of attacks on immigrants in Namur and Charleroi in 1991 and 1992. In 1996 the Charleroi branch of Assaut, a gang of bikers and skinheads, was reformed.
Agir (Act, see above), the 'party of popular opposition', was active between 1989 and 1994 but disintegrated after the May 1995 elections. Founded in 1989 by defectors from the Liège branch of PFN (see above) which was active from 1974-91, the party today comprises Agir-Fréson, Agir Destordeur, the Référendum movement (see above) and the Front d'Action Populaire (Front for Popular Action). Its leaders have joined Féret's FN, Bastien's FNB or the PCN (see below). One exception is former president Robert Destordeur, who purports to represent Agir and edits the small nationalist magazine Li vrège Gazète (The Real Gazette).
Another French-speaking, extra-parliamentary far-right organization is the Bruxelles-Identité-Securité (BIS, see above) movement, founded in 1994 and operating as a propaganda committee for the VB. Its leaders are Robert Steuckers and Pieter Kerstens (former PFN leader, see above). The BIS campaigns for 'a society of the future which will be nationalist, populist and united'. Its rhetoric is marked by anti-US sentiments.
The Parti Communautaire National-Européen (PCN, Party of the National European Community) has sworn 'to stop the liberal far right' personified by the FNB. It was founded in 1984 from a federation of neo-Nazis and far-left ex-militants, and its programme centres on the liberation of Europe from its 'Yankee and Zionist enemies'.
Belgique-Europe-België is a bilingual (French and Flemish) monarchist party that emerged in 1989. Following electoral disaster and a split between the 'old guard' and younger members, the party divided into factions: Unie (Unity Party, see above), Ligue des Patriotes (League of Patriots) and Parti de l'Entente des Belges (Party for Belgian Entente).
In October 1996 it was revealed that Herbert Egoldt, the notorious distributor of neo-Nazi skinhead music, was operating from a new far-right mail order company based in Brussels, Pure Impact. Egoldt formerly operated Rock o Rama in Germany, at one time the world's largest supplier of racist material, until police invaded his office and confiscated 30,000 records in 1992. He is now linked with Belgian extremists Peter Swillen, Ludo Henri Crol and Luc Taymans who launched Pure Impact in an attempt to revive the neo-Nazi record empire in Europe, which, in recent years, has been overtaken by Resistance Records (see Canada, USA) and Nordland (see Sweden).
For the last few years posters with the Flemish inscription 'Koopt niet bij Joden' ('Don't buy from the Jews') have repeatedly been stuck to the windows of Jewish-owned shops in Antwerp.
In June 1997 the Nivelles municipal council found the political opinions of a local police officer incompatible with his role as a policeman, particularly 'the protection of individual rights and liberties, as well as the democratic development of society'. In a February 1997 lecture in Auderghem, the officer in question alluded to 'Judeo-Masonic' conspiracies and compared present-day immigrants to invaders, whose occupation of Belgium was more cunning than that of the Nazis, when 'at least things were clear'. Complaints lodged by the CECLCR to the mayors of Nivelles and Auderghem, the interior minister and the local authorities in Brussels led to the officer's dismissal.
On two consecutive nights in November 1997, the synagogue in Anderlecht was attacked by young rioters. The door to the synagogue was set alight and stones were hurled at the windows. The son of the synagogue's caretaker was injured when he tried to stop the youths. Witnesses reported hearing the chant, 'Death to the Jews. Hamas will have you'. The incident occurred after clashes between youths, mainly Moroccan immigrants, and the Anderlecht police.
In 1996 the association Belgique et Chrétienté (Belgium and Christianity) was revived. Founded in 1989 to 'promote the western and Christian identity of Belgium', it is now presided over by Alain Escada (see Publications and media). Its leading light is G. Dubois, a young lawyer and member of the PSC who has regularly visited Lebanon and Croatia to support 'his brothers in religion'.
In 1992 a group of Catholic fundamentalists from Charleroi joined the Ligue Chrétienne Belge (LCB, League of Belgian Christianity), which is linked with Le Cri du Citoyen (The Cry of the Citizen), a Catholic paper that has been known to publish antisemitic material (see Publications and media).
Charleroi is also the home of Milice de Jésus-Christ, a Catholic order of chivalry led by the former PSC prime minister, Paul Vanden Boeynants. This actively recruiting group is the Belgian branch of the Chevaliers de Notre-Dame, the French Catholic fundamentalist organization that helped in the escape of the former Nazi Paul Touvier (see France).
These groups together with the Rassemblement Patriotique (Patriotic Rally), led by Princess Rosalie de Mérode, have lent their support to Bastien's FNB (see Parties, organizations, movements).
Another similar movement is the late Monsignor Léfèbvre's Fraternité sacerdotale St Pie X (Sacred Brotherhood of St Pius X, see also France). With branches in Brussels, Antwerp and Namur, this Catholic sect claims to be the ideological heir of Charles Maurras and Vichy France. One of its leaders, the magistrate G. Walliez, has been supporting Féret's FNB since 1987 and is one of the ideologists of ultra-Catholic clandestine outfits such as L'Ordre du Rouvre. The sect also has links with Pro Vita (see Publications and media), Belgium's most influential anti-abortion lobby group. Since its creation in 1972, Pro Vita has been strongly influenced by a range of antisemitic theories, although its activities in recent years have slowed down (see also Publications and media).
Vrij Historisch Onderzoek (VHO, Foundation for Free Historical Research), run by Siegfried Verbeke, is the principal organization for the distribution of Holocaust-denial propaganda throughout Europe. Based in Antwerp, it defines itself as 'a group devoted to research into the history of freedom'. It was founded as a semi-clandestine group in 1985 by VB militants and young neo-Nazis. Although in recent years the VHO has experienced financial difficulties, it continues to publish and distribute Holocaust-denial works in French, Dutch and German. Verbeke has been prosecuted several times in the Netherlands where, in November 1998, his appeal against an earlier conviction for Holocaust denial was upheld by the supreme court (see The Netherlands). He has reportedly recently launched a new international magazine entitled Vierteljahresheft fur freie Geschichtsforschung (Quarterly for Free Historical Research). The 'magazine' is published on-line as part of the VHO's extensive web-site, which also provides links with other Holocaust-denial sites. On the francophone side the organization is supported by Assaut, Le Cri du Citoyen and the neo-Nazi publication Bec et Ongles (Teeth and Nails) (see Parties, organizations, movements and Publications and media).
All the main Flemish neo-Nazi groups publish antisemitic and Holocaust-denial propaganda, although the far-right press has a restricted circulation and has little effect on the country at large. The VB, along with its own internal publications, is trying to develop publications with a wider appeal. Its serial publications include: Vlaams Blok (a monthly magazine sold in bookshops); Kaderblad (Cadre Sheet, an internal publication, published by the Institute of Nationalist Formations); VVBM-Nieuwsbrief (a bulletin for members); and VBJ-Nieuwsbrief, the bulletin of the youth section. Local newsletters include Antwerps Nieuws (Antwerp News), Barrikade (Barricade, Brussels), Bloknagel (Brabant), Blokschrift (Bloc's Letter, North Brussels) and De eerste linie Fractie (The First Line Division, Turnhout).
VB-produced books include: Europa barst (Europe on Its Knees) by Senator Wim Verreyken; Eigen volk eerst (Our People First) by Filip Dewinter; Europese gedichten (European Poems), a collection of poetry by Nazi collaborators, including Robert Brasillach and Robert Poulet, edited by Karel Dillen; and leaflets on various racist themes and on AIDS.
VB also produces the theoretical review Dietsland Europa, the party's 'laboratory of ideas', which was edited by Karel Dillen between 1962 and 1975. The party receives editorial support and publicity in the Antwerp-based Flemish satirical weekly 't Pallieterke, founded by Nazi collaborators after the Second World War and still widely available. Since the election of its members to the national parliament, VB has also been eligible for broadcasting time on Flemish television and public radio. The VB unit in charge of these programmes is the Nationalistische Omroepstichting (NOS, Foundation of Nationalist Broadcasting).
Daniel Féret's FN (see Parties, organizations, movements) produces occasional publications like Le National (The National, a propaganda magazine started in 1989), La Lettre du Président (Letter from the President, an internal bulletin started in 1991) and various local periodicals including La Flamme (The Flame, in Charleroi), Molenbeek - ma commune (Molenbeek - My Neighbourhood, Saint-Gilles Verité) and Front national (Anderlecht).
Since September 1995, Marguerite Bastien's FNB (see Parties, organizations, movements) has published the weekly magazine Polémique-hebdo (Weekly Debate). Edited by Alain Escada, a former leader of the Catholic nationalist movement and now a member of the FNB, it provides a forum for all political viewpoints in the nationalist movement (including neo-Nazism) to be expressed. Lebastion, a monthly magazine, has also been distributed to FNB members since February 1996.
In November 1996 Escada opened a bookshop in Schaerbeek, a suburb of Brussels, selling antisemitic and Holocaust-denial books and journals. Escada is also the Belgian correspondent of Écrits de Paris, the theoretical journal associated with the French far-right weekly Rivarol (see France), and has links with the French review Faits et documents, edited by Emmanuel Ratier (see France).
Le Cri du Citoyen (The Cry of the Citizen) re-emerged in 1995 after not appearing for several years. First linked with the right-wing Catholic integrationist Parti libéral chrétien and now with the LCB (see Religious antisemitism), it also supports the FNB. The journal is managed by its original founder, the Italian Francesco Catania, together with Patrick Sessler, and is supported by various figures such as Paul Jordens (ex-FNB), Christophe Buffin (a member of Pro Vita, see Religious antisemitism) and Robert Steuckers (see above). It reproduces material from the publications of other far-right parties.
Ket is a pro-VB francophone periodical produced by BIS (see Parties, organizations, movements). In 1996 an article spoke of the 'horrors perpetrated by Bernard Weinstein and [Marc] Dutroux' (see Overview). Weinstein was suspected of being an accessory in the case, and was subsequently found murdered. Ket highlighted Weinstein's involvement on the grounds that he was Jewish.
The neo-Nazi monthly Europe Nouvelle (New Europe), edited by Rolf van den Haute (a VB councillor), appeared four times in 1996 and since then has ceased to appear, principally due to the financial problems of its Parisian partners L'Æncre (see France). Also supported by L'Æncre is the monthly devoted to the work of the antisemitic French writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Le Bulletin Célinien.
Several far-right French journals (Minute, Rivarol, L'Action française) (see France) are on sale in bookshops in Belgium. Other French publications are distributed through subscription.
Among the antisemitic literature available in the bookshop of Pro Vita (see Religious antisemitism) is Les Secrets des franc-maçons (Secrets of the Freemasons) by Jacques Ploncard d'Assac who, in 1928, was a journalist on the French newspaper L'Anti-juif (The Anti-Jew).
The VB, the VBJ and KOSMOS all maintain Internet web-sites.
Culture
The television programme Telefacts, aired on the channel VTM, carried out a month-long investigation into the entry practices of Belgian discotheques. Journalist Thomas Van Hemeledonck noted that in Flemish-speaking Belgium 50 per cent of discotheques refused entry to people of Turkish or Moroccan origin (Italians, Asians and Africans experienced less overt discrimination).
Belgium has two laws intended to combat antisemitism. The July 1981 law is aimed at persons and organizations discriminating on the basis of race, religion, cultural or ethnic origins. A second law, passed in March 1995, makes Holocaust denial illegal. These laws have not often been invoked.
In April 1997 the neo-Nazi and former member of the Front de la Jeunesse, Jean-Marie Paul, was convicted of murdering the Moroccan Baroudi Hamou sixteen years earlier. Paul fled to Paraguay after he committed the murder and was granted Paraguayan citizenship. Attempts to have him extradited have failed.
Also in April 1997 the neo-Nazi businessman, Benoit de Bonovoisin, was sentenced to three years' imprisonment and heavily fined for fraud and financing far-right organizations.
In October 1997 VB member of parliament Xavier Buisseret was convicted of assaulting two under-age girls. He was given a six-month suspended prison sentence and immediately resigned from parliament. The girls were daughters of other VB members. The VB expects Buisseret to eventually return to parliament.
In November 1997 the mayor of Lokeren in northern Belgium issued a decree stating that people could not gather publicly in groups larger than five. This followed unrest in Brussels after a Moroccan drug dealer was shot by police. The mayor feared clashes between North African immigrants and police after windows had been smashed and cars overturned immediately after the shooting.
In September 1996 anti-fascists in French-speaking Belgium and those in the Brussels area combined to form Co-ordination Anti-fasciste de Belgique Francophone (CAF), which works with the anti-fascist movements in Flanders. Its aim is to organize the struggle against the far right and to fight against the dissemination of neo-fascist ideas within the traditional parties. CAF is part of INTERNAF (Anti-Fascist International) and represents the French Ras l'front in Belgium. Several members of the group also work on a new anti-fascist review, RésistanceS.
In June 1997 MRAX hosted a forum on the 'links of solidarity to combat racism' in Molenbeek. Workshops focused on combatting discrimination through education and the media and co-ordinating information and research by anti-racist groups. The forum was well attended by politicians and representatives from human rights groups.
In October 1997 hundreds of people gathered outside the Place de Colignon in Schaerbeek to protest Demol's return to head the Schaerbeek police force following his four-month dismissal for having lied about his far-right sympathies (see Parties, organizations, movements). Protesters, forming the group Rassemblement de Citoyens Soucieux de la Démocratie (Gathering of Citizens Concerned about Democracy), claimed: 'Because of his past with the Front de la Jeunesse, and especially because of his attitude and recent declarations, Johan Demol has been completely discredited in our eyes. In a community where police presence is extremely important in maintaining the confidence of local citizens, how can a police officer who has publicly expressed his sympathies for a racist and anti-democratic party be a responsible police chief?'
In May 1995 the municipal council of Liége adopted the charter 'Liège contre le Racisme' (Liège against Racism). The terms of this charter are permanently stuck to the entrance of most public buildings and a bus, painted with the colours of the charter, tours the region to remind people of its values.
In October 1997 an international colloquium, organized by the Centre
Communautaire Laïc Juif (Centre for the Lay Jewish Community) and the Comité de
Coordination des Organisations Juives de Belgique (Committee for the Co-ordination of
Belgian Jewish Organizations), discussed means of combatting the far right using the
media, government, education and the judicial system. Participants included lawyers,
politicians, journalists and anti-racist activists.
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Institute for Jewish Policy Research and American Jewish Committee
© JPR 1999
