Frank Vanhecke facing "political death"

10/11/2008

At Belgium's request, the European Parliament is expected next month to lift the immunity of one of its members, a former leader of the rightist Vlaams Belang party, exposing him to racism charges. Describing himself as a victim of blatant persecution, Frank Vanhecke told Haaretz the decision could spell his "political death." ...

Vlaams Belang is an anti-immigration in the Flemish Community of Belgium that advocates the independence of Flanders and separation from the French-speaking population.

Although it's one of the country's largest parties, and the second largest political party in Flanders, it is kept out of government by the Cordon Sanitaire, a pact between all other Belgian parties to refrain from joining a coalition with Vlaams Belang.

Belgian justice minister and Deputy Prime Minister Jo Vandeurzen asked the European Parliament in April to lift Vanhecke's immunity so that Vanhecke can be prosecuted for a short article which appeared in 2005 a local party brochure, that linked an act of vandalism at a Christian cemetery to the Muslim minority in Sint-Niklaas, a city in the Flemish province of East Flanders...

If convicted under Belgian anti-racism legislation, Vanhecke could lose his seat in the European Parliament as well as his right to be active in politics. Last Monday, the European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs voted to lift Vanhecke's immunity, leaving the final vote for a plenary session in December. Commentators following the case say the December vote is a mere formality on the way to lifting Vanhecke's immunity.

"The Belgian government is persecuting me because I'm a member of a party which calls for Flemish independence," MEP Frank Vanhecke told Haaretz last week. In Vlaams Belang's official reaction to the Monday vote, the party said that "Belgium really is a banana republic." ...

Naets also pointed out that Vlaams Belang is a Flemish-secessionist party which aims for the independence of Flanders from Belgium. He declared that this, and not racism, is the real reason for an attempt to ban Vanhecke from the coming European elections.

"In the almost 30 years that I have known Vanhecke [...] I have never been able to catch him out on any form of racism whatsoever," Naets said. "Vanhecke will be prosecuted because he is a symbol for a party that wants to abolish Belgium."

Before it became Vlaams Belang in 2004, the party was called Vlaams Blok. It changed its name and adjusted its platform after Belgium's supreme court declared it was a racist movement, effectively banning it from the political establishment.

Diana West backs Filip Dewinter

November 11, 2008
Diana West

Baron Bodissey of the Gates of Vienna has posted tonight about the evil and ongoing campaign of character assassination against Filip Dewinter and his Flemish secessionist, anti-Islamization party Vlaams Belang in Belgium. Having interviewed Dewinter on several separate occasions--a couple of times in Antwerp last summer, once in Washington last year--I only wish the US had candidates of his strength, purpose and calibre. I know of no American politician who understands the historic sweep of the jihad as Dewinter does, and who is so forthright, outspoken and active in his stand against it. As far as the completely spurious and thoroughly deranged charges against him of anti-Semitism and crypto-Nazism go, they are, well, spurious and thoroughly deranged. Last summer I asked him to explain his stand against Islamization. He replied:

"It’s a global struggle for our values, for our European way of life life, for our civilization. That’s why I think it is also a European struggle; that is, It’s not only about a mosque two blocks away—no! It’s about our survival as a European nation and as a civilization. And I recognize those values, that civilization, also over there in Israel. It’s the only country in occupied territory, the vanguard of Europe in occupied territory, that is sharing those same values. And that’s why it’s so important to support Israel."

I asked him to expland on the term "occupied territory." What he meant, he told me, was not at all the conventionally Leftist and loaded meaning--territory occupied by Israel since Israel's 1967 war of survival against her Arab jihadist neighbors. No, what he meant was territory occupied by Islam since the Muslim wars of conquest and expansion began more than 1,000 years ago. Such lands include Northern Africa, Asia Minor, and the Middle East--all of which used to be mainly Christian and other faiths, including, where Israel is concerned, of course, Jewish.

Pretty darn terrific, if you ask me.

Belgian politician Bart Debie jailed for 'racism'

October 29, 2008
Diana West

... Bart Debie ... has been ordered to report to a Belgian prison ... to begin serving a one-year term for “racism.”

Let me explain the ghastly surrealism of this sentence as meted out to this former police officer and former Antwerp City Council Member by the Belgian state: Debie neither made the racist remarks at issue, nor was he even present during the incident. This only adds horrific dashes of Kafka and Koestler to a politically correct prosecution of a member of the political opposition by what may be best described as fascistic little Belgium...

... While responding to complaints about a pair of drunks, Debie and his policemen were attacked by five Turkish men wielding a baseball bat and a knife. Two witnesses testified to this attack in court. After helping to subdue and arrest the attackers, Debie was called away to supervise a SWAT team elsewhere in Antwerp, and his men returned to the station with the Turkish prisoners, who later claimed they had been beaten and subjected to racism while at the station. Debie believes the beating did indeed occur in his absence, although his ultimate conviction was for creating, as he explains it, "an atmosphere which led other people to say such things" as--get this--“Now we have five lambs here and we can slaughter them.”

... The policeman who admitted to making the “racist” comments went unpunished and now serves, Debie told me, on a “team for managing diversity in Antwerp.” Meanwhile, the Turks were never charged for their assault on police.

Having left police work, Debie decided to run for a seat on the Antwerp city council and, as he put it, “make Antwerp safe that way.” He ran as a member of Vlaams Belang, the Establishment-reviled conservative political party that (1) seeks Flemish independence from Belgium, and (2) opposes the Islamization of European culture which Left-wing elites in both Belgium and elsewhere in Europe actually encourage in part to help increase their own constituencies. And Debie won.

It so happens that after Debie was elected, prosecutors appealed his verdict.

Hmmm. I wonder why? Could it be part of the Belgian government’s ongoing campaign against Vlaams Belang, which, as the largest political party in Belgium, presents an continual threat of secession to Belgium (home, after all to “united Europe”) and opposition to Islamization? Even now, two of the leading members of the party, Filip Dewinter and Frank Vanhecke, are facing legal battles of their own to retain their political rights and viability against other completely bogus charges of “racism”—the favored bludgeon of PC Belgians desparate to retain centralized power...

And what does a convicted “racist” in Belgium do to make pay his debt to society? So far, Debie has paid fines of E30,000. He long ago lost his police career, and after this recent conviction, the government of Belgium actually stripped him of his political and civil rights for 12 years locally and five years nationally. All of which sounds, frankly, more Old Soviet than Old Europe...

Tomorrow, barring unforeseen intervention, he reports to overcrowded and violent Vorst prison outside Brussels where he will be serving alongside some of Belgium’s worst criminals, a not inconsequential number of whom are what Debie wryly characterizes as his “former clients.”

This surely puts Debie’s very life at risk, a fact he has urgently pressed onto Belgian authorities, who have so far failed even to acknowledge his safety concerns.

“When I got the news [to report to the prison], I rang to the prison director,” Debie told me. “They knew exactly who I was and they told me, We are very sorry but this is the worst place you could get” assigned to.

October 30, 2008
Lawrence Auster reports Debie's sentence has been suspended...

So, as a result of the authorities' sudden access of humanity, Debie, instead of having been fired from his position as police superintendent, forced off the police force, forced out of the political office to which he was subsequently elected, stripped of his political and civil rights so that he can't vote or run for any office, fined 30,000 euros, and sentenced to prison for a year, he has been fired from his position as police superintendent, forced off the police force, forced out of the political office to which he was subsequently elected, stripped of his political and civil rights so that he can't vote or run for any office, fined 30,000 euros ... and confined to his home for a year.

Clearly, in the EU, the quality of mercy is not strained.

And last year in 'fascistic little Belgium' ...

Peacful demonstrators attacked by Brussels police


Some videos of Debie in court (here and here) and as a policeman (here and here).

And a video by Diana West of Debie's last day in parliament here.

Videos: can divided Belgium hold together?

Belgians divided by language barrier - 23 Sep 07



Belgium Divided?_July 15 2008



There's another video here, and a couple more here (part1 and part2)

The BBC has a few articles on the Belgium Crisis (20 October 2008) ...

Belgium has launched a drive to reshape its institutions, following months of government paralysis. At the heart of the crisis is a tension between the Dutch-speaking Flemish and Francophones. In the final of a series of articles, Henri Astier asks if Belgium can remain united, and considers the lessons for other multi-ethnic entities.

How ironic that the home of the European Union is paralysed by diversity, and sees independent/separatist/homogenous sentiment grow stronger - no doubt partly as a backlash against the assault from open-borders immigration. Chairman Rudd is trying to tell us that open-borders is also the way of the future for Australia. But maybe the real future for Australia is also polarisation, political paralysis, and separation along ethnic lines.

And, just for a spectacle of nature, check out this trailer for a film about Belgium.

Dewinter in a battle with activists in Ghent, Belgium

October 10, 2008
Gates of Vienna - part1 and part 2
Videos here and here

Near the auditorium “Blandijn” of Ghent University, a violent uproar occurred before the start of a debate organized by the NSV (Nationalist Students Association). At the entrance of the building a violent confrontation occurred when Filip Dewinter of Vlaams Belang with a score of supporters tried to gain access.

Blows

A group of activists from left-wing student associations had blocked access and kept opponents outside with violence. Both sides then pushed and pulled and there were some blows exchanged.

Admission Rector

It was the first time that the rector had allowed the NSV to organize a debate on the premises of the university. The event was supposed to start at 8:00pm with a debate between Filip Dewinter and Jean-Marie Dedecker (LDD) about the cooperation between the Netherlands and Flanders. However, activists from left-wing student associations had blocked admission to the university building at 6:00pm.

Harassment by the extreme left

Dewinter had previously announced that he “would not let himself be intimidated by threats from the extreme-Left”. After consultation with the rector and the police he walked to the blocked entrance with his supporters. In the violent confrontation that resulted both sides exchanged blows and slaps and one supporter of the extreme right sustained a head-wound.

Order Troops

The police were present with fifty troops on the ground, and intervened. With the help of order troops and a water cannon the groups were driven apart.

Attack on freedom of expression

In response Dewinter said the incident was “an attack on freedom of speech”.

“We were struck and beaten because we wanted access to a university for an approved debate. The so-called anti-fascists used fascist methods to try to silence us. This can not be allowed in a democracy.”

Debate canceled

When asked whether he also used violence, Dewinter replied: “If someone hits my face, I do not tend to turn my other cheek.” The debate was canceled. The police are still stationed at the location.

Before the event, Filip Dewinter wrote this on his blog :

I will not be scared away by threats and violence, and I will go tonight to the Blandijnberg [Ghent University] in Ghent.

And Diana West ponders whether this thuggish suppression of free speech is brewing in America with The Coming Obama Thugocracy.