BELGIUM: Belgians vote in local elections which could give more ground to Flemish far right

Record ID: 837343

  • Title: BELGIUM: Belgians vote in local elections which could give more ground to Flemish far right
  • Date: 7th October 2006
  • Summary: RIVER VIEW OF ANTWERP WITH CRANES IN BACKGROUND
  • Embargoed: 22nd October 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • City:
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAAHYUERY2VP48BQRVFCP6NRHWU
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  • Story Text: Belgium is preparing for local elections on Sunday (October 8) which could deepen the existing divide between Flemish and Waloon politics and in some part could leave a far right majority in place.
    Radio shows have been filled every day with tales of crisis within the government, with incidents of Flemish politicians accusing francophone ministers of mismanagement setting the scene for the local elections.
    Newspapers, at the official start of campaigning, printed cartoons depicting Waloon and Flemish prejudices against each other. A Flemish school banned children from speaking French on the premises only weeks ago.
    None of this is new. Almost all Belgian political parties are divided into linguistic groups: Flemish-speaking, Francophone and even a minority of German-speaking parties.
    Belgium is a federation and its political system, as the thousands of different posters in the street attest to, is made up of a myriad of parties - most of which have no chance of winning alone.
    But in Antwerp, Belgium's second-largest city which is located in the Flemish north, one party is trying to break the mould in more ways than one: the anti-immigration Vlaams Belang party could increase its already large share of the vote in Sunday's election and could even take control of certain towns or districts for the first time.
    Trying to get an idea of what the people of Antwerp think of Vlaams Belang is not easy. The party was re-born under a different name when the Vlaams Blok was disbanded in 2004 after a court declared it incited hatred and discrimination. Some see it as the same dangerous reincarnation whilst others espouse it as a truly populist party. And some may or may not be scared of criticising it. Belgian humour might be the best way to understand the Vlaams Belang.
    "I think they are going in the right way. Maybe. Get rid of more foreigners. All of them, especially the Belgians," an Antwerper joked.
    "(There is) No question of discrimination of races. But it is a question of interest of the people," said Antwerp resident of Gambian origin, Momodov Sidibeh.
    "I think we are going back to the Middle Ages," Mieke Vervees, another resident, said.
    The right-wing nationalist party is seeking independence for the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders.
    It made headlines in 2000 when its predecessor party, the Vlaams Blok, won a third of the vote in Antwerp.
    Political analysts believe six more years of opposition will have done nothing to blunt the right-wing's potential, particularly as they put up more candidates.
    Leading member of the Vlaams Belang Filip Dewinter is running for the mayor's seat. He is confident the party will win Antwerp. Opinion polls forecast that 34 to 39 percent of voters in Antwerp, the party's stronghold, will back Vlaams Belang.
    "The illegals, the asylum seekers, the deportees, but also the legal North Africans and Muslim foreigners, all those who refuse to adapt themselves, they have to know that they are not welcome here and that their place is not here, but in their country of origin," Dewinter told his supporters during a campaign rally.
    About a quarter of Antwerp's 460,000 residents are foreign or of foreign-extraction, the majority of North African or Turkish origin.
    Dewinter has tried pandering to the Jewish community, that tends to trade around the huge diamond market of Antwerp, by distinguishing the party's anti-Islamic stance from anti-semetism.
    In an interview by the American-Jewish weekly, The Jewish Week, last year, Dewinter was asked if "Jews should vote for a party that espouses xenophobia". He responded by saying: "Xenophobia is not the word I would use. If it absolutely must be a 'phobia,' let it be 'Islamophobia.'"
    The party says it wants to end recognition of Islam as a religion, arguing it is not European and does not respect Western norms.
    In the predominantly Muslim districts of the city people are resentful and angry and fear a rise in support for the Vlaams Belang.
    Last May a man bought a gun, went looking for immigrants, according to his confession to the police, and went on a shooting spree. A 2-year-old girl was killed, and her nanny from Mali injured. A Turkish woman was also killed.
    The whole community was in deep shock after the killing.
    But one youth, Ousman Endiaye, said he understands how a party like Vlaams Belang could get more votes despite its aggressive non-inclusive message.
    Endiaye explained that there is a lot of violence in the immigrant districts, which gives immigrants a bad image. He thinks fear is motivating nationalists to vote for the far right.
    "Violence without a reason is stupid. All problems can be solved without violence. So if we are careful, then the Vlaams Belang cannot win. But if they do win, we have only ourselves to blame. We can't blame the Belgians for whatever reason," Ousman Endiaye said.
    An alliance of mainstream parties, dubbed the 'cordon sanitaire', has held Antwerp since 1994 to keep the Vlaams Belang from office.
    Analysts expect it to stay in power, keeping Socialist mayor Patrick Janssens in office. Janssens is the former leader of a coalition of parties the Flemish social democratic party in Belgium and the social liberal party Spirit (sp.a-Spirit).
    However, the Vlaams Belang could take hold of up to three city districts or a small community outside the city.
    Such a victory would follow a string of far-right successes across Europe in recent years, such as last week's boost in support of right-wing parties in Austria, as voters become increasingly concerned about immigration.
    The party's challenge is either to win an absolute majority or to persuade members of a mainstream party to ally with them.
    Denounced as racist by its opponents, the far-right has softened its tone since the ban of the Vlaams Blok.
    The party no longer talks of expelling immigrants. Dewinter says it wants to stop immigration. In interview he urged newcomers to Flanders to learn Dutch, and accept Western values or return to their countries of origin.
    "Vlaams Belang works for the interests of the indigenous people of Antwerp. Vlaams Belang puts the interests of its own people first, that's for sure. But the Vlaams Belang is not a racist party, on the contrary, we put our hand out to the people who come from outside, and we tell them that they have to adapt, they have to integrate, they have to naturalise. This means that they have to take on our way of living and not the other way around. And that is why we are against a multicultural society that allows everybody to do what he thinks he can do without being restrained by anyone," Dewinter says.
    Janssens is vitriolic against the Vlaams Belang which he clearly perceives as a threat. His message is that people must understand the difference between Flemish nationalism and racism.
    "I am Flemish and I want to be able to say 'I am Flemish and proud of it'. When today someone says this, then you are a seen as a fascist and I blame the Vlaams Belang for that. Someone who lives in Catalonia can say, I am Catalonian and I am proud of it; someone who is from Brittany can say, I am a Breton and I am proud of it, a Corsican can say that, a Scot can say that. I want to be able to say that too. The worst thing that the Vlaams Belang has done is to taint the pride of Antwerp and Flanders and I will never forgive them for that," Janssens said.
    The minister-president of Flanders, Yves Leterme, has a different approach. He leads the centrist Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V) party and objects to the international attention given to the Vaams Belang although he does admit that his party needs to re-appropriate his votes.
    "The Vlaams Belang well, there is even the possibility that, in some towns, we manage to stop their progression. I live close to the French border, I've seen Roubaix, Tourcoing, Lille and the National Front. It is the same sort of thing that is going on in Flanders. So we are not some sort of exception on the international scale. However, it is true that there is work to be done," Leterme said.
    Artists across Belgium performed for an audience of 100,000 people in four concerts on Sunday (October 1) held to promote tolerance in Antwerp, Brussels, Charleroi and Ghent in a show of defiance against the far-right.
    Filip Dewinter says the Vlaams Belang's first priority, should it gain office, would be to launch a firm crackdown on crime with a zero tolerance policy.
    Sunday (October 8) will determine if the people of Antwerp supports his message or if they show defiance by voting for the other parties.
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