Extreme-Right politics in Belgium
Recent stories
Racist killing sparks outrage against VB
Municipal elections are due to be held in Belgium in October 2006.
16 May 2006 (599 words)
Vlams Blok relaunched as Vlaams Belang
On 14 November, the Vlaams Blok dissolved itself and formed a new party, the Vlaams Belang (VB).
14 December 2004 (399 words)
Vlaams Belang demands integration test
The Vlaams Belang has called for all foreign residents in Flanders to pass an 'integration test' composed of knowledge of the Dutch language and Flemish culture.
13 December 2004 (89 words)
Wallonia does not welcome foreigners
According to an intercultural exchange body which organises for families across Europe to accept foreign students on study trips abroad, the French-speaking south of Belgium is one of the most inhospitable regions.
1 December 2004 (42 words)
Orthodox British Jew murdered in Antwerp
Moshe Yitzchak Naeh, 20 a Hassidic Jew who worked as secretary to the local rabbi, was found shot in the head outside his home as he unloaded his car at 2am on 18 November.
22 November 2004 (103 words)
Socialist burgomaster allows neo-Nazis to march
Antiracists in Anvers were angry that Patrick Janssens, the socialist burgomaster of Anvers allowed neo-Nazis of the Droite Verte International to hold a demonstration in September 2004 whilst the same man banned anti-racists from holding a celebration 'living together against racism' in June.
17 September 2004 (69 words)
Rethink on cordon sanitaire
Belgian politicians in Antwerp have been refusing to share power with the VB, though it represents the second political force in Flanders.
9 September 2004 (258 words)
Vlaams Blok in cosmetic make over following court case?
Despite, or perhaps because of, its success in the June polls (23 per cent in European elections, 24 per cent in the Flemish poll) the VB is apparently having to rethink some of its policies in order to enter into power-sharing with other parties.
9 September 2004 (208 words)
Antwerp: Jewish student stabbed
Up to a thousand people demanding zero tolerance of anti-Semitism gathered in Antwerp to protest at the near-fatal stabbing of a 16-year-old yeshivah student on 24 June.
28 July 2004 (139 words)
Christian Democrats call for end of VB cordon sanitaire
The Flemish Christian Democratic Party (CD&V) has called on the mainstream parties to revise the policy whereby a cordon sanitaire has been kept around the Blok since its electoral breakthrough in 1991.
27 July 2004 (119 words)
Health system fails foreigners
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) reports that thousands of foreigners are going without medical care because they find the health system so confusing and forbidding.
14 July 2004 (79 words)
Asylum centre attacked
A centre for asylum seekers was attacked on 3 July by three armed men wearing masks.
8 July 2004 (43 words)
Large gains for Vlaams Blok in European and regional elections
In the European parliament elections in June, the Vlaams Blok (VB) increased its share of the vote to gain one extra MEP (total 3).
22 June 2004 (273 words)
Front National make gains in Wallonia
While the Front National (FN) did not fare as well as the Vlaams Blok, many analysts are concered about its rising popularity with the electorate in the traditional Socialist heartland of Wallonia.
15 June 2004 (172 words)
Vlaams Blok councillor arrested for shooting
Wim Fellx, a VB councillor of Sint-Gills-Waas, near Antwerp has been arrested in connection with the shooting of two men in a café in Sint-Pauwels, in which one man was killed and another seriously wounded.
27 May 2004 (66 words)
Vlaams Blok drops hotline plans
After ministers attacked the party for opening a hotline in Antwerp, inviting citizens to denounce suspected illegal immigrants, the Vlaams Blok (VB) dropped its plans.
20 May 2004 (75 words)
VB fined for breaking race laws
Three auxiliary organisations controlled by the VB were each fined 12,394 Euro in April for breaching a 1981 law against racism and xenophobia and incitement to racial discrimination.
29 April 2004 (188 words)
Eco-fascists march in Antwerp
On 31 January a march organised by the Flemish European League, and including many members of the Groen Rechts, a fringe Flemish right-wing extremist group that links ecology with paganism and Nazi ideas, marched through Antwerp demanding 'Europe for the Europeans'.
1 April 2004 (75 words)
Voting right for immigrants is electoral issue
Senators from the Flemish Liberal Democrats (VLD), the prime minister's party, the Vlaams Blok and the Flemish Christian Democrats managed to prolong a debate on the bill to extend voting rights in communal elections to non-EU foreign residents, so no vote could be taken.
5 February 2004 (180 words)
Cardinal sued over attacks on gays and Jews
Gustaa Joos, a Belgian cardinal is being sued following an interview he gave to a soft porn magazine.
29 January 2004 (96 words)
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