Posted by Cathal Copeland on November 09, 2004, 04:10 PM | #

The European Union now has 24 democratic Member States and one formerly democratic one.

So long Belgium, your days are truly numbered.

If I were a Walloon, I would hang my head in shame; if I were a Fleming, I would prepare for battle.

Posted by Tanguy Veys on November 09, 2004, 04:22 PM | #

Democracy needs a party like Vlaams Blok.  In a country where there is no place for such a party, there is no democracy.

Posted by Phil on November 09, 2004, 04:50 PM | #

Nothing to be somber about. In fact, if anything, events like this demonstrate the level of desperation the European elites have now reached. They sense trouble building inside the kettle. The water is beginning to show signs of coming to a boil. The lid must be kept shut at all costs.

Not too far away the Danes have been moving rightwards and the Dutch have been forced to wake up. The Belgians can dig their brains in the sand only for so long.

If anything, Political Correctness in Europe is showing some remarkable similarities to Communism in the 1980s.

Posted by Vomit on November 09, 2004, 05:27 PM | #

The test of democracy is freedom of criticism.  ~David Ben-Gurion

The Belgian state has resorted to its very last non-violent weapon to suppress the grassroots independence movement taking possession of its Flemish cash-cow.

Let them enjoy their Pyrrhic victory for as long as it lasts.

Posted by Geo on November 09, 2004, 10:23 PM | #

There is a force nullifying Democratic movements and outcomes throughout the western world. Though the circumstances vary any movement which seeks to assert a nation’s “volksgeist” is targeted for destruction by the combined efforts of judicial, executive, media, and legislative campaigns.

Though I oppose this tyranny I see no effective opposition. I won’t even post my real name for fear of losing my job.

“So this is how the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper”. T.S Eliot

Posted by Fred Scrooby on November 10, 2004, 12:51 AM | #

The decision handed down today was a defeat for justice and morality.  The Vlaams Blok certainly has nothing whatsoever to be ashamed of.  It is rather the socialists and internationalists who have perverted the Belgian judicial system and twisted the meaning of Belgian laws in order to get the result they wanted, who have everything to be ashamed of.

The Blok may be dead but what it stood for certainly isn’t—and never will be, so long as one single Fleming remains alive, because what it stood for was life for Flanders, nothing more, and nothing less than that:  it stood for the survival of the Flemish nation.  That which the Vlaams Blok stood for could not be killed today but Belgium was killed.  Belgium will not survive this, and my heart aches because I love that country, that great, good, brave little kingdom.  It’s the left who’ve killed it, as they kill everything else that is great, good, and brave.

Here is advice Lawrence Auster has given to traditional conservatives in our country (the U.S.) to strengthen them when all seems hopeless.  It wasn’t written with Flemish patriots in mind, of course.  But its words may be able to strengthen them too, especially at this heartbreaking time of their temporary defeat:   
   
“[...T]he most important course of action for traditionalist conservatives at the present moment (given the seemingly unstoppable power of the dominant culture, it may be the only available course of action) [...] is, knowing the truth, refusing to yield to the lies that surround us, refusing to yield to the prevailing mentality of our society, no matter how victorious it may seem.  Everybody today, particularly Republicans and mainstream conservatives, is echoing the same refrain:  ‘Diversity is happening, immigration is happening, moral liberation is happening. We cannot return to the past.  To exist and get along in this society we must accept these things.’  Traditionalists must entirely reject such accommodationism.  The starting point, the indispensable condition of any conservative or traditionalist movement, as well as of our personal spiritual survival, is that we say NO to the prevailing values of the liberal order and that we keep saying no, that we never accept them inwardly, even while recognizing the fact that they exercise effective control over society at present and that we may need to accommodate ourselves to them to a certain degree in our external interactions with society.  That inward refusal, that inward, spiritual independence of our environment, shared among enough like-minded people, can become the basis of a new community.  And then other things, more active and external things, may become possible as well.”
____________

Does any of the commenters know the address to which Americans can send contributions of money for the new group or party which the Flemish patriots are going to found?

Posted by Braveheart on November 10, 2004, 08:47 AM | #

Flanders in Belgium – Vlaams Blok ban - brief press-review.

Vlaams Blok ban is frontpage news in all Flemish newspapers: Belang van Limburg, de Standaard, Gazet van Antwerpen,  Het Laatste Nieuws, …. 

I picked up one dazzling comment from major columnist Luc Van der Kelen .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
from het Laatste Nieuws, who is normally not friendly for Vlaams Blok. It is important enough because it was aired on the radio this morning. I quote (translated out of Dutch):
…nevertheless, it remains a fact that politicians should not drag their antagonists in court, but must challenge them with arguments in face of the electorate. All that is said concerning the separation of the judicial and the executive/legislative branches is pure hypocrisy: the politicians have provided the judiciary with the means

Posted by http://lvb.net/item/658 on November 10, 2004, 10:29 AM | #

De veroordeling van het Vlaams Blok wegens racisme werd gisteren bevestigd door het Hof van Cassatie. De binnenlandse media staan uiteraard bol van de artikels, analyses en beschouwingen over dit a…

Posted by Fred Scrooby on November 10, 2004, 10:58 AM | #

Columnist Luc Van der Kelen’s point about today’s trend toward rule by judiciary rather than by legislature is an extremely important one: 

”…nevertheless, it remains a fact that politicians should not drag their antagonists into court, but must challenge them, with arguments, before the electorate.  All that is said concerning the separation of the judicial and the executive/legislative branches is pure hypocrisy [...]”

We suffer under exactly the same outrage here in the States:  the judicial usurpation of legislative power.  Left-liberal judges here in the States have been, in effect, making law, levying taxes, and changing governmental policy in ways never intended by those who originally structured our society and decreed strict limitations on the powers of each branch of government.

I wonder, could Braveheart post future discussions of published Flemish and Walloon reactions to yesterday’s ruling (including pundit comments which cite the outrage of judicial usurpation of powers) as a new log entry rather than as a reader’s comment in this thread?  The reaction to the Vlaams Blok banning is an extremely important topic for our time (which is or should be of great interest to all countries in the Western World).

Posted by Alejandro Robledo on November 11, 2004, 08:57 PM | #

Strange! I was on the thinking that Latin-America was one of the last parts of the world with democracy issues still to be solved; even when I have visited Flanders for several times during the last years and enjoyed their culture it is hard for me to understand why a party is prohibited by the law, however it is up to both the Flemish and Belgian goverments, but it is not exactly what I expected to happen after Europe is fully migrating to democracy. People should always be able to speak and show their perception regarding anything and in the right way, when the politics options become blocked then ways become a lot more hard to go by.

Wiht all of my respects for both Flanders and Wallonia.Regards.

Posted by Braveheart on November 12, 2004, 04:03 AM | #

Sometimes in history, the political hunger for power and money is so great, that slowly but surely and through the years, fundamental rights have to give in. Each time by changing the law again and again to obtain certain goals, a new small step is set.  But it’s only at the end of the ride, that the full extent of the disaster becomes clear.

But my biggest disappointment here is that those who had to prevent it, I mean the Council of Europe, just have helped to legitimise the move. Apparently the French-speakers had better diplomatic connections to sell their lies. See at:

Posted by A Leftist on November 15, 2004, 04:37 PM | #

I was shocked to see any political party criminalized by a government. But it’s happening here in the U.S. The Republican party is lending its own air of Nazism to our political - and personal - atmosphere. The calvary did not ride in and save, but instead killed. They were not the good guys.
I wonder when our own witch hunts will begin again.
God protect us from your followers and the Fred Scroobys of the world!