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VLAAMS BLOK ABANDONS INFAMOUS 70-POINT PROGRAMME The extreme right-wing Vlaams Blok (VB) has decided to ditch the infamous "70-point programme" it adopted shortly after its first big electoral breakthrough back in 1991. The move to abandon the "programme", a set of drastic measures the party designed to rid Flemish society of immigrants, received little press coverage, being drowned in the flood of media reports on September’s terrorist attacks in the USA. Despite the indignation caused by the VB’s programme in Belgium and abroad, the party stuck to it even when the Flemish parliament unanimously condemned its contents as comparable to Hitler’s NSDAP programme of the 1920s and 1930s because it represented, more than anything else, the VB’s unique ‘trade mark’ in Belgian politics. The VB’s "70-point programme", however, did not even have the merit of postwar originality, since it was no more than an ‘enlarged copy’ of a similarly xenophobic programme developed by the Front National in France during the late 1980s. Nevertheless, the "70-point programme" served for years as the ultimate justification of the (Flemish) democratic parties for their cordon sanitaire, isolating the VB and excluding it from real political power at any level in Belgian politics. It has been the effectiveness of this far-reaching action by the democratic parties, and its own consequent lack of any perspective, that has made the VB "change its mind". The VB’s move should not be taken too seriously as the party will keep most of the proposed "70-point programme" measures in its daily propaganda and electoral programmes. The only major changes are that the publication will no longer be on sale and that the party’s MP’s (and various others) will no longer refer to the programme in public. Meanwhile, the Vlaams Blok apparently faces a serious internal problem in its youth section, the ‘Vlaams Blok Jongeren’ (Vlaams Blok Youth). This outfit, founded by VB Führer Philip Dewinter in 1987, lost its president Jurgen Branckaert recently when he resigned in protest at the party’s attitude towards "the project of the youth section" as he described it to Flemish newspapers. The party leadership, always sensitive to negative press coverage, played down Branckaert’s decision to quit as "a personal problem" fed by ambition but VB president Frank Vanhecke stated he would not accept opposition within his party at any time. Branckaert has not left the party but has been replaced by Frederic Erens from Brussels, a rising star in the VB despite his French-speaking background. Until 1989, Erens was an activist of the Belgian National Front Le Front national Belge led by Daniel Féret, a man known for his strong support of a unitary Belgian state and his hatred for the Vlaams Blok. When he made his move to the VB, Erens presented himself as someone who had eventually found back his true "Flemish roots". Wim HAELSTERMAN In SEARCHLIGHT, de novembre 2001 Collaborateur flamand de "RésistanceS" et de la revue antifasciste anglaise "Searchlight"
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RESISTANCES:
THE ENGLISH PAGES RésistanceS wishes to make a practical contribution to the fight against fascism, racism, xenofobia, extreme nationalism and the paralysing "pensée unique". RésistanceS is fully independent and is not linked to any political organisation whatsoever. RésistanceS is put together by a team of volunteers with different ethnical and socio-cultural backgrounds from all over the country (Brussels, Wallonia and Flanders). Our primary objectives are: to expose the extreme right, to analyse the conditions allowing neo-fascism to develop, to prove the worthlessness of right-wing extremist ‘alternatives’, to denounce the influence of neo-fascism on mainstream politics, to establish an anti-fascist network for individuals and organisations Write RésistanceS 9, Quai du Commerce B1000 Bruxelles Belgium |