Posted on 11/10/2004 3:20:07 PM PST by swilhelm73
Belgium's most popular political party was banned as racist by the country's high court yesterday, fuelling concerns that the judicial branch is being used to eliminate political enemies.
The Vlaams Blok, a Flemish independence party promising to abolish Belgium as a nation, now cannot receive funding of any kind, and will have to disband.
Frank Vanhecke, the party's chairman, accused the ruling elite of using totalitarian tactics to stop legitimate political expression and vowed to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
"This is an attack on democracy and free speech. Our political opponents have changed the racism laws six times in a campaign to have us condemned. What they have done today is shocking," he said.
The party leaders plan to relaunch it next week with a new name, Vlaams Belang, or Flemish Interest, and a manifesto extolling women's rights, the secular state and the rule of law.
Analysts say attempts to muzzle the group have invariably failed, adding to its mystique as the victim of a reviled establishment that has saddled Belgium with a huge national debt and some of the highest taxes in the world.
The Vlaams Blok has risen from murky neo-fascist roots to reinvent itself as a modern, free-market party and become the biggest in Dutch-speaking Flanders, the richest part of Belgium with 60 percent of the population.
Its ever-growing popularity is a threat to the ruling liberal party of Guy Verhofstadt, the prime minister, who could face political annihilation in the next election. The lawsuit against the Vlaams Blok was brought by a rights watchdog controlled by the prime minister's office.
The high court upheld an earlier ruling that party branches had violated race laws by distributing 16 leaflets in the late 1990s deemed to be incitement against immigrants. The party attacked the ruling as a breach of free speech since much of the material consisted of official statistics.
One of the tracts, denouncing female circumcision in Islamic countries, was written by a Turkish-born woman member of the Vlaams Blok but the court ruled that the arguments were intended to foment anti-Muslim feeling.
It's not too late yet. Could be done.
The GOP will be the Marxists next target for this tactic...right in the USA
I guess judicial activism isn't limited to the US.
How long before Belgium becomes dominated by Muslims I wonder?
How long before America becomes dominated by Muslims I wonder?
Destro, that's a lower shot than usual.
Low shot how? It was a post using sarcasm to kind of make a point.
Don't get me wrong Destro, I appreciate the sarcasm, but most people won't remember Russia's equivalent of Nader, and the fact he was disappeared for a while.
He was found alive - he disappeared to gain publicity - his vanasihing was a hoax. Think for a minute - the man you mention in question is no political threat (he is indeed more pathetoc than Nader in terms of voter support) thus your assertion that Putin somehow had him vanish is foolish.
Belgium is another one of those funny little European mini-states that we failed to de-Nazify at the end of WWII.
It's not too late yet. Could be done.
Speaking as a Belgian I think all the peaceloving politics don't work at all. Living in peace with Muslims who strongly believe that the only chance for peace is to wipe out all other believes seems impossible to me. I live in the middle of a so called multicultural society where it's not safe to raise children anymore. And if Vlaams Blok wanted to do something about it they were called racists. But often is the term racism confused with nationalism. And I know that's what they are. See here in Belgium people are obliged to vote. Even people who just arrived here and know nothing about Belgian politics. When my party Vlaams Blok tried to make a stop to that and got the majority of votes, the rest of the parties formed a coalition to prevent this from happening. The reason they prosecuted Vlaams Blok is that they are scared to lose their jobs in the parliament and bribed their way to the so called democracy. Same thing throughout history, the rich get richer the poor stay poor.
But think of this do you want to live in a country where they hand out free passports for foreigners, give them wellfare and oblige them to vote? They can't even speak our language. It's madness and when someone tries to stop all that by organising free classes for them to learn the language within a year or go back, they get prosecuted.
Neonazis? No way, we just care about what our ancestors build up, a society based on christianity and they don't fit in that picture. Vlaams Blok only said addapt to our culture or go back. That doesn't mean that they have to be christians too, but at least learn the language and find a job.
But hey who's the neonazi here? If we don't have the right to think what we want because we get prosecuted, I think they are the neonazis, not us.
Belgium was an evil state before the Nazis. See what they did to the people of the Belgian Congo in colonial times.
So what? How does that invlove us in the present? Do we complain about USA wiping out native americans? This is now, not then. Should I hate the Germans because their fathers killed mine?
Excuse me - you spoke of De-Nazification. I am saying maybe they were not De-Leopoldized either. Just a thinking out loud.
This is actually pretty cool. If you're the one banning your opposition, that is. We should try it with the Democraps before they try it on us first.
Time to blow up the High court and move on.
Belgium: Not just the Netherlands garbage dump (and not too much more, either).
that was just a reply to the first message. Since I clicked the wrong button you think it's a reply to you. But ok, still like I said in my first reply, the rick keep getting richer and the poor stay poor. What Leopold did to the Congo (and what many other countries did too the their colonies) are acts from the rich, who don't give a shit about how on the streets people get raped ond killed. They just move to another area where they don't see it. And when a foreigner moves there, they sign petitions to make them leave again. I sure am not pro Leopold, he was a jerk. But that is another topic I think. The deeds of so many evil people with power don't apply to Vlaams Blok or problems nowadays. I'm certainly no racist at all. But I think that what we have shouldn't be destroyed by a flood of people that don't care about our believes.
If I visit your house and should take of my shoes, I do it. It's your house your rules. If I refuse, you show me the exit, right? Same goes for a country if I go move to another country I have to respect their traditions and rules. If I don't I get kicked out. Well the madmen we have now in our parliament say: oh then we just bend the rules a little for them. Ok still no problem. But here comes the problem 'for them' not for us. If I park my car wrong, I get a $30 fine. On the same time a foreigner robs a convienent store at the corner, gets arrested, goes to trial. He doesn't have to go to jail, why? Because jails are filled with them. No room, he walks and no one looks back. Another example. A dad with 3 children has a shitty job, he wants to take one of our free courses to get another diploma. He fails the selection test. At the same time an aeroplane lands, a foreinger from the former Congo steps off, only speaks french, doesn't want to work. Goes to that same class that dad failed to get in. Shows his passport (he just got for free) can take the class, doesn't understand a word the teacher is saying and fails the finals. Goes back to wellfare and parasites on the back of that same dad who pays taxes for him. How's that? Do I have to mention that Leopold was Liberal and that the same liberals screw up everything here? The same liberals that are anti Vlaams Blok. The ones who took them to trial? I'm sure they did great things for us, but problems shifted to other problems, so time for a change. But when we want to change it means they lose their position, lose their fancy trips to Paris every week payed by the tax payers and have to trade in their Porsches for Fords.
Henri Pirenne must be weeping in his grave.
Indeed!! His ideas included Belgium (Flemmish Part) to be an independant nation. Loose from the french part and work together more with the Netherlands. Another idea Vlaams Blok stands for.
Had an uncle who fought in the Bulge. Besides describing the terror of the sounds of Tiger Tanks he had very little good to say about the Belge he encountered. GIs in his unit, the 28th, believed that the Germans received assistence from the local populace during the early stages of the attack. He didn't like the Belge too much.
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