Filip Dewinter
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Filip Dewinter (official spelling: Philip Dewinter, born September 11, 1962, Bruges) is a Flemish politician in Belgium. He is one of the leading members of Vlaams Belang, a Flemish nationalist and secessionist political party. Together with Hugo Coveliers of the VLOTT party, Dewinter will form a list cartel for the next city elections of Antwerp on October 8, 2006.
Dewinter was already politically active during his highschool years at the Sint-Franciscus-Xaverius instituut in Bruges. In 1978, as a 16-year old, he founded the Flemish Student Action Group (Vlaamse Studenten Actie Groep), that later was transformed into the Nationalist Young Students League (Nationalistisch Jong Studenten Verbond). In that year he was briefly a member of the Flemish People's Party (Vlaamse Volkspartij). In September 1982, he moved to Antwerp, where he studied political science and sociology at the University of Antwerp, and became a member of the Nationalist Student Society (Nationalistische Studenten Vereniging). In 1983, he became a member of the Flemish Block (Vlaams Blok). He did not finish his university studies however, but completed a journalist degree at the Erasmus College (Erasmus Handelsschool) in 1985. In November 1987, he was elected member of the Belgian parliament, in which he formed a political fraction with Gerolf Annemans (who, earlier that year, had succeeded to founder-Flemish Block president Karel Dillen). Under Dewinter's leadership, the parliamentary group continued to grow, notably in 1991, when the Flemish Block, from a small party, grew to about 12% of the voters. This growth has continued ever since, making the party the biggest in Flanders according to polls.
In 1988, he also became a City councilman in Antwerp. When the Flemish Parliament and the Belgian Parliament got elected separately in 1995, he chose to be a member of the Flemish Parliament (which deals with a lot of regional matters). His hard statements on especially foreign migration provided for victories in the elections of 1999 and 2003 for the Flemish Parliament.
[edit] Opinions
A December 2005 interview by Vlaams Belang frontman Filip Dewinter with the American-Jewish newsweekly The Jewish Week included a question if "Jews should vote for a party that espouses xenophobia". Dewinter responded by saying: "Xenophobia is not the word I would use. If it absolutely must be a ‘phobia,’ let it be ‘Islamophobia.’" [1] (see also islamophobia). This statement has weighted heavily on the French-speaking Belgian Socialist Party for them to become part of an appeal against the Vlaams Belang at the Council of State, an appeal that tries to take away the government subsidy of the Vlaams Belang.
Dewinter has also been interviewed by the Israeli paper Haaretz. About the collaboration of Flemish nationalists during World War II he had to say:
- "Many Flemish nationalists collaborated during the war because they thought - and now it is clear that they were wrong - that this would help them achieve independence for Flanders. This is the whole story. The overwhelming majority were not Nazis. They collaborated in order to attain independence and because the Church called upon them to go out and fight the Communists - something that Western Europe continued to do for 50 years. Now, in 2005, it is easy to say: `The collaboration was a mistake.’ The collaboration did not help our country at all; we just became a vassal state of Germany. At the time, it was logical, because of the Church, because of communism. But this has no connection with Nazism." [2].
About the attendance of party members to ceremonies marking the death of Staf De Clercq he responded:
- "He is one of the historic leaders of the party. This is part of the history of the Flemish nationalist movement and it is impossible to deny this. We are the descendants of this movement. Some of the members of the party attend these events because they want to honor the heritage of the Flemish movement. This does not mean that they agree with Nazism. Not at all. I understand that this is hard to understand as a Jew. I respect very much that Jews have a problem with this. But Jews must also understand that this is not as simple as it seems. Not all of the [Nazi] collaborators wanted to kill the Jews in Europe. Most of the collaborators had other motives. I think that if they were living today, most of them would be ashamed of what happened to the Jews. The only thing I can do today is to say that I respect very much the suffering of the Jewish people, to express my sympathy and condolences about what happened and to try to move far away from this. But the Jewish people must understand that not every collaborator was necessarily anti-Semitic." [3].
