13.11.04

Ethnic-based parties in multi-ethnic nations...

... does it work?

Although I certainly do not share Adam Yoshida's views at all, I do enjoy reading his blog occasionally and he has stumbled (and misinterpreted) a very important piece of news that I was not aware of. Death of Europe

Reported more comprehensively by the BBC here at Court rules Vlaams Blok is racist, apparently the party, which is built around the concerns of the Dutch-speaking Flemish majority in Belgium that feels dominated by the French-speaking Walloon elite, has been banned for its xenophobic ideas and separatist ideology. The banning of which Patrick might approve of, considering its similarity to the PQ in Canada - safe from the fact that Dutch-speakers are actually the majority of the population and occupy nearly half of the country. (Belgium is legally a bilingual Dutch/French-speaking country with a 10% German speaking minority, which has its own media and officials in the east - the numbers for French and Dutch natives are Dutch 58% and French 32% respectively)

The VB point of view can be found here at Vlaams Blok.

While I believe that they should be forced tone down their xenophobic populism (you should be able to nail prominent members for inciting public disturbances), a democratically organised party that expresses the concerns of its voters and does not espouse violence, nor other illegal acts, should not be forbidden. What do you think?

Cheers,

Falco-at-the-office-at-nearly-2am-on-Friday-night-and-going-home-now.