One of Ours

Belgium took another step towards becoming a repressive state this week by slapping what amounts to a ban on a popular political party with anti-establishment views.

The anti-immigrant Vlaams Blok (VB) has been subject to tough financial and operating restrictions on the basis that it is "undemocratic and racist."...

...The VB demands the repatriation of immigrants who choose not to assimilate: It also calls for Flemish Belgians - who occupy the prosperous north of the country - to create their own state, separate from the poor French-speaking south.

... the VB is not a tiny fringe party, but one which holds 12% of the seats in Belgium's parliament. It has, he continues, many local councillors and two MEPs, and was expected to do very well in the forthcoming elections...

...EURSOC holds no brief for the Vlaams Blok. However, the ban demonstrates the intolerance and anti-democratic instincts at the heart of one of Europe's model states..."if you do not sign up to certain beliefs then your politics are, by definition, beyond the pale and thus illegitimate."...

"Belgium is in many ways a mini-EU: an artificial state created (much like Europe’s three former such states, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia) as a result of political ideology rather than any sense of national unity, and held together by a political class which is prepared to subvert democracy to achieve its ends. Add to that a judiciary which, far from being independent of the political establishment, is an important part of the problem, and you have a recipe for what took place in Ghent this week: democracy, Belgian-style, in which you may vote only for a party whose views are approved by the elites.

The actions may be specific to Belgium, but the lesson is of wider import. The EU is in the process of becoming just such an artificial state. The fate of the Vlaams Blok shows that worries about the future of democracy are not scare stories. They are real dangers and they are with us today."