Flemish movement
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The
Flemish Movement is a popular term used to describe the political movement for greater autonomy of the region of
Flanders and protection of the
Dutch language. The movement is unique in that unlike most seperatist movements, the Flemish movement is very much dominated by the right-wing as opposed to the usually left leaning movements in
Ireland,
Basque and
Quebec for example. The movement today is dominated by the right-wing organizations such as the
Vlaams Blok (Flemish bloc), Voorpost, NSV (Nationalist Students Organization) and countless other groups. There are however more moderate groups such as the NVA (New Flemish Alliance), although they are rather insignicant. The Flemish movement today generally seeks an independent Flemish republic with Brussels as its capital. A large group of the flemish movement however also advocates reunion with the Netherlands to form a greater Netherlands sometimes called
Dietsland. This view is also shared with many Dutch right-wingers and nationalists who are very supportive of the Flemish movement.
History
With the defeat of Napoleon in 1815 the 'southern Netherlands' was reunited with its northern half under the Kingdom of the Netherlands. This also included Luxemburg. In the next 15 years many in the southern Netherlands, generally francophile middle and upper classes, began to resent domination of the Dutch language and protestantism. This lead to the Belgian revolution in 1830. The French government heavily supported this revolution and it is therefore no surprise that the first head of government was a Frenchman and that the new King was married to the daughter of the king of France. This resulted in a new very much francophone state in which French was the only recognized language. This despite the fact that the majority of people in the newly created Belgian state spoke Dutch. Half a century after the Belgian revolution Flemish intellectuals such as WF Willems and Hendrik Consience began to call for recognition of the Dutch language and culture of Belgium. This movement became known as the Flemish movement. Its first success was the passing of a law in 1898 that for the first time recognized Dutch as a language in Belgium. With the coming of the 20th century the flemish movement became more radical and in the first world war many 'activists' welcomed the occupiers as 'liberating Germanic brothers'. The Germans did indeed help out their 'germanic brothers' by setting Dutch as the sole administrative languge and converted the University of Ghent to Dutch language. With the German defeat so went many of the language reforms and alleged collaboration was used as a pretext to arrest, harass, and execute Flemish movement leaders. In the 1920s the first Flemish nationalist party was elected and in 1928 a prominent Flemish leader on death row for working in the German flemish government was elected. In the 30s the flemish movement grew ever larger and larger and Dutch was recognized for the first time as the sole language of Flanders. During World War II Belgium was once again occupied and once again many of the Flemish movement looked at is as a liberation from French domination. The Germans once again enacted further laws to protect and encourage the Dutch language in Flanders. After Germany's second defeat the Belgian government once again used collaboration as a pretext to repress the flemish movement. Many leaders were imprisioned and executed. After this the Flemish movement lay dormant for nearly 20 years. Then in the 1960s the movement once again picked up steam and in 1962 the language borders were finally set up with Brussels being designated as a bilingual city. The late 60s saw all major Belgian political parties splitting up into Flemish and Waloonian parts. It also saw the emergance of the first major nationalist Flemish party, the Volksunie (Folks Union). In 1977 more radical right-wing splinters of the Volksunie came together to form the Vlaams Blok (Flemish Bloc). This party would overtake the Volksunie and today is the main party of the Flemish movement.
External links
