2023-08-13 13:06:00
This is one of the differences between the north and the south of the country: the extreme right is a major political force in Flanders while, on the French-speaking side, it remains anecdotal. It is not for lack of trying to settle there.
“Far-right groups have also been trying to establish themselves there for many years. Unable to develop there, they generally have a rather limited life expectancy. Founded in 1999, the Nation movement is an exception”, note two researchers in an article published in Radices, the scientific journal on terrorism and extremism of Ocam (Coordinating Body for Threat Analysis) .
Benjamin Biard is a research fellow at Crisp and a lecturer at UCLouvain. Yves Rogister is a lecturer at the University of Liège.
In an article entitled “To the right of the right”, they retrace the entire journey of Nation. They detail Nation’s election results. It is a long repetition of figures, regularly described by the party itself as “disappointing”.
The researchers explain this electoral marginality by several factors: strong competition on the niche of the extreme right, lack of financial and human resources, media cordon, mobilization of civil society against the extreme right or even difficulties in investing in Nation for fear of private or professional repercussions.
The emergence of a French-speaking extreme right? “A risk to be taken seriously”
The hybrid nature of Nation
Nevertheless, Nation manages to maintain itself in the French-speaking political landscape. For the two authors, it is the hybrid nature of Nation which guarantees its longevity.
Nation, they note, “anchors its work both in the electoral field and traditional political activism, on the one hand, and in right-wing extremism on the other. The latter is particularly characterized by its uninhibited relationship to violence – called, committed or justified”.
Nation thus presents different markers of this right-wing extremism. And this, from the very beginning.
Its founder started at the VMO (Vlaamse militanten orde) and founded L’Assaut, whose members have committed violent actions against far-left and anti-racist activists or migrants. He defends a “revolutionary nationalism”, with economic and social positions on the left, combined with a cult of the leader and a rejection of so-called “mass” immigration.
It happens to its executives to slip. This earned them convictions in 2006 for incitement to hatred and racial discrimination for leaflets distributed. The ties they have developed abroad are unequivocal.
Nation is also adept at punching. This is how, the authors recall, six members of Nation beat up and left for dead a homeless person of Polish origin who had arrested them. Nation activists then came to counter-demonstrate during a demonstration of undocumented migrants in Place du Luxembourg in Ixelles on June 1, 2015. This earned them suspended sentences and fines.
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