ABSTRACT
Racism in general, and among young people in particular, has become increasingly explicit in Flanders during recent years. The political expression of this racism has been a party called the Vlaams Blok (the Flemish Bloc). At the end of the 1970s the party was established by right-wing activists within the centrist nationalist party, the Volksunie (the People’s Union). The leaders of the Vlaams Blok presented a much more radical and separatist programme in relation to Flemish nationalist aspirations than the Volksunie. In the course of the 1980s, however, the Vlaams Blok gradually reoriented its goals with Flemish nationalism being replaced by a racist focus on the migrant population in Flanders. The new party line was strongly inspired by the racist ideas of similar movements abroad, like the Front National of Le Pen in France. As a consequence, the party moved from a marginal position, rapidly gaining popularity. During the November 1991 parliamentary elections, the Vlaams Blok obtained some 12 per cent of the votes in the Flemish community securing one in four votes cast in the important Flemish city of Antwerp. This position was confirmed in the municipal elections of 1994.
