Belgium's last municipal poll --or how the Flemish pot is calling the Austrian kettle black....
Paris, Tuesday, October 10, 2000
Far Right Scores Big in Flanders
By Barry James International Herald Tribune
In a new challenge to democracy in the European Union, the ultra-nationalist Vlaams Blok, or Flemish Bloc, made a dramatic advance in regional elections in the northern Dutch-speaking half of Belgium, according to complete results issued Monday.
The success of the anti-immigrant party in the port city of Antwerp was the biggest victory for the extreme right since the Freedom Party entered the Austrian coalition government.
In Antwerp, the country's second-biggest city, the swing to the party was so pronounced that its leader, Filip Dewinter, said, ''even I had not dared to dream this.'' The party was expected to get 20 of the 55 seats on the city council. Other parties have declared a cordon sanitaire around the bloc, agreeing that they will not enter into alliances or coalitions with it.
The bloc has increased its share of the vote in the port city from 18 percent to 33 percent in the past 12 years, by exploiting anti-foreigner sentiment, as well as playing to fears about crime and economic insecurity.
Analysts said that voters were fed up with the laxness, corruption and immobility of the mainstream parties, Socialists and Christian Democrats, that between them have run Antwerp for a century. The bloc, which calls for independence for the Flanders region, also exploited resentment among Flemish people who complain that too much of their tax money goes to the southern French-speaking region of Wallonia.
The reaction from around Belgium was largely one of condemnation, even though the bloc had been widely expected to do well in the election on Sunday. The Liberal prime minister, Guy Verhofstadt, sought to reassure the country by saying that in Belgium as a whole, 90 percent of Belgians voted against the extreme right.
In most of the country, in fact, people voted heavily for Mr. Verhofstadt's coalition of Liberals, Socialists and Greens. The Flemish Bloc appeared to have picked up some votes from the Christian Democrats, who were marginalized in last year's general election.
The bloc denies that it is xenophobic and says foreigners are welcome to stay in the country, provided they learn to speak Dutch and live like Flemings [Blokkers refer to the B-word as to a curse only...].
The Belgian foreign minister, Louis Michel, had led a European campaign to isolate Austria after the election success of the Freedom Party there, fearing a spread of the far-right into other European countries including his own. Indeed, the Flemish Bloc, whose views are more extreme than the Freedom Party, carefully studied and learned from the Austrian situation.
The bloc's leader in Antwerp, Mr. Dewinter, dressed in smart suits like the Freedom Party leader Georg Haider, toned down his rhetoric and sought to convey the idea that the bloc is reasonable and moderate. The party remains a Flemish phenomenon. Johan Demol, a former police officer who tried to rally French speakers to the bloc, flopped in Brussels.
With similar nationalism looming in the north of Italy, the rise of the far right is becoming a problem for the European Union. President Jacques Chirac of France, who also opposed the entry of the Freedom Party into the Austrian government, was expected to sound out other leaders on the possibility of a joint approach to rising extremism at the European Union summit meeting in Biarritz, France, on Friday and Saturday, diplomats said.
Mr. Chirac reportedly wants the treaty amended to allow the EU to act as a body in defense of democratic values, but Britain, Ireland and Denmark expressed opposition to the idea at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg. The EU nations broke off normal diplomatic relations with Austria for several months, but they had to do so individually rather than collectively.
iht.com |
