Belgium: Racism and fascism (3)
01 January 1991
Belgium: Racism and fascism
artdoc April=1995
More on fascists in local elections
Anvers
The Vlaams Blok scored 28 per cent of the vote in Anvers,
Flanders, in October's municipal elections, making it the largest
group on the town council. However, no other party is prepared
to go into coalition with the VB and it is now up to the
departing mayor to form a new ruling coalition in Belgium's
second city (Le Monde 11.10.94).
Brussels
The Francophone National Front made its greatest gains in
Wallonia (at the expense of the Greens) and in Brussels. Brussels
and its suburbs are divided into 19 communes, in many of which
the NF obtained nearly 10 per cent of the vote. In the bilingual
city of Brussels, and its suburban periphery, the Francophone
parties are making electoral gains at the expense of the Flemish
parties. The far-Right Wallonian party, AGIR (Avant Garde for the
Regional Initiative) also took many local seats in Brussels.
Notable gains for the NF were also made in La Louviere (14 per
cent of the vote) and Charleroi (10 per cent) (Le Monde
11.10.94).
Fear grows in Antwerp following far-Right successes
Since the Vlaams Blok scored nearly 29% of the vote in Antwerp
in the municipal elections - the largest vote won by a far-Right
party in recent times anywhere in Europe - political analysts
are trying to establish how such a vote was possible in the
centre of Belgium's most prosperous region. Antwerp is a liberal
trading and cultural city that took in many survivors of the nazi
concentration camps after the second world war. And the support
for the Vlaams Blok has led to a pledge from the traditional
parties not to work with the fascists. The prime minister has
proposed dropping the obligation to vote and setting a 5 per cent
threshold for political parties to enter parliament. Antwerp,
with a population of 500,000, has 16 per cent unemployment, well
above the national average of 11 per cent. Filip Dewinter, the
leader of the Antwerp branch of the Vlaams Blok blames the city's
problems on its 12 per cent immigrant population, singling out
`illegal immigrants' from Morocco and Turkey for an increase in
crime. Dewinter says that those with an Islamic background cannot
co-exist in catholic Flanders. Furthermore, immigration from
eastern Europe and countries like Portugal, could lead to `social
revolution' by putting downward pressure on wages, warns Dewinter
(International Herald Tribune 1.11.94).
National Front harbours nazi collaborators
The London-based Institute of Jewish Affairs has brought out a
report highlighting some of the activities of three elected
National Front councillors. Daniel Leskens, who heads the
National Front's list in Anderlecht, had been shown on TV
urinating on a Jewish grave, while another man gave the Hitler
salute. Councillor Alfred Dartevelle is alleged to have been a
nazi collaborator. Henri Laquay, a councillor in Koekelberg, is
alleged to have served as a civil servant for the ministry of
health's department for nazi victims during the war (Jewish
Chronicle 30.12.94).
IRR European Race Audit, Bulletin no 12, March 1995. Contact: Liz
Fekete, Institute of Race Relations, 2-6 Leeke Street, London
WC1X 9HS. Tel: 0171 837 0041