A before-the political-lynching snapshot of Frank Vanhecke from June 2008
My friend Paul Belien of The Brussels Journal just emailed me that the European Parliament has voted to strip the parliamentary immunity of Frank Vanhecke, the leader of Vlaams Belang (VB) in the European Parliament. This will allow Belgian authorities to try Vanhecke for "racism." A procedural formality remains to be completed, but it is all but certain that Vanhecke's free-speech immunity as a parliamentarian is gone.
What does this mean? Belgian authorities are dying to try (and convict) Vanhecke on "racism" charges. After his conviction--and you can take it to the bank that Belgium will convict this advocate of freedom for Flanders and opponent of Islamization--Vanhecke, like Bart Debie before him, will no longer have political or civil rights. Vanhecke's political career--and it has been an illustrious one--will be over. Bottom line: the popular, thoughtful and articulate Vanhecke will not be able to run in the European elections in June 2009.
What a clean, sterile, postmodern way for the fascist little Belgian establishment to neutralize opponents: no Gulag; no prisoners--just "racists" at "liberty," convicted out of their political rights. Why didn't Stalin think of that? No fuss, no muss, no political opposition. And look what the old jackboot strategy got Belgium when it was used against Vanhecke in 2007?
Outrageously bad publicity.
What are these "racism" charges on which Jo Vandeurzen, the Belgian Minister of Justice, wants to bring Vanhecke to trial? This is where, once again where speech code totalitarianism is concerned, we go beyond Orwell, beyond Kafka, and beyond Zippy. Paul explains:
The Belgian authorities hold Mr Vanhecke responsible for the publication of a text in a local party publication in the town of Sint-Niklaas. The author [not Vanhecke] had blamed a wave of vandalism at a Christian cemetery on immigrant youths. As the culprits were minors, Belgian law prohibits disclosing their identity, thereby preventing the VB to prove beyond doubt whether or not the youthful vandals were, indeed, Muslim immigrants. Though the author of the text is known and is NOT being prosecuted, Mr Vanhecke is, even though he had not written the article, nor seen it before it was published. The authorities hold him responsible for the article since he was the national VB leader at the time of publication.
Guido Naets, former spokesman of the European Parliament, asked the European parliamentary committee hearing the case to turn down the Belgian request. Paul writes:
Mr Naets pointed out that Vlaams Belang is a Flemish-secessionist party which aims for the independence of Flanders from Belgium. He declared that this, and not racism, is the real reason why the Belgian authorities want to thwart the party by banning Mr Vanhecke from standing in the coming European elections. “In the almost 30 years that I have known Frank Vanhecke [...] I have never been able to catch him out on any form of racism whatsoever,” Mr Naets said. “Vanhecke will be prosecuted because he is a symbol for a party that wants to abolish Belgium. For all these reasons I beg the European Parliament, beginning with this Commission not to become an accessory to a political lynching and an attempted smear attack of a radical Flemish party, in which racism is being used as a cheap excuse.”
Alas, the political lynching is, as francophones would say, a fait accompli.
I'm sure the Belgian Embassy would like to know what you think about it:
3330 Garfield St NW
Washington, DC 20008
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