Nova Civitas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nova Civitas is a Flemish think tank based on the principles of classic liberalism in combination with Anglo-Saxon conservativism. Nova Civitas claims to be completely independent, although it is recognized and supported by the Flemish Liberal Party. The chairman of Nova Civitas, Boudewijn Bouckaert, is a former member of the VLD and the N-VA. He also used to be a member of the national VLD board.
According to their website, the basic principles of Nova Civitas are :
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Nova Civitas was founded in 1992 as a new political club to support the rebirth of a strong liberal movement in Belgium dominated by the VLD in Flanders and the PRL in Wallonia. Nova Civitas is headquartered in Ghent. In 2004, a new regional committee was created in Antwerp and in 2006 in Brussels.
Nova Civitas opposes what it calls the socialist welfare state and advocates Flemish Independence. Nova Civitas also wants to create a big right-wing political party alliance in Flanders, including VLD, CD&V, N-VA and Vlaams Belang. Because of these rather controversial viewpoints, several Nova Civitas-members already have been sentenced by the VLD board[vague]. The two Belgian Senators and NC-members Hugo Coveliers and Jean-Marie Dedecker were even forced to leave the VLD because of this.
After the 2006 dismissal of Dedecker from the VLD, Hugo Coveliers, Jean-Marie Dedecker and Boudewijn Bouckaert (along with several other Nova Civitas members) started negotiations to form a new "right-liberal" party, but Dedecker and Bouckaert eventually joined the N-VA. After an outburst of internal protest in the days following their membership, the two liberals were forced to leave the N-VA again. Together, they have founded the thinktank "Cassandra". In 2007, Dedecker started his own political party, the eponymous List Dedecker (Dutch: Lijst Dedecker), which embraces the political principles of Nova Civitas and Cassandra, and which advocates politics of so-called "common sense".
Nova Civitas also grants an annual award, the prestigious Prize of Liberty.
- 2002: Luuk van Middelaar (a Dutch historian and philosopher)
- 2003: Ayaan Hirsi Ali (a member of the Dutch Parliament).
- 2004: Matthias Storme (a Flemish professor at the University of Leuven)
- 2005: Alain Destexhe (a Belgian senator)
- 2006: Derk-Jan Eppink (a Dutch columnist and journalist)
- 2007: Urbain Servranckx (Urbanus, a Belgian comedian)
