Belgium has a new government......because we said so!

“Belgium’s political crisis finally over” reads the headline on an article from Radio Netherlands Worldwide.
“It’s taken nine months, but now the political crisis in Belgium appears finally to have been resolved.“
Has it really been resolved though?
The new governing coalition is far from an ideal stable government. It is a hodgepodge of parties that are in many ways ideologically opposed to each other.
French speaking Socialists, Dutch speaking Christian Democrats, and the nonsense speaking Liberal VLD whose ‘accomplishments’ over the past years in government include taking their political opposition (Vlaams Blok) to court while letting some of the most heinous murderers in Belgium’s history run free.

Despite being roundly thumped by the electorate in the election nine months ago the VLD find themselves once again in the government with parties whose only shared common interest is their quest for power and stomping out of political dissent. A setup that has rightly been called “The Cartel”. This is Belgium’s ‘new’ government, in fact not much different from the old one.
MORE HERE

'Belgium Means Nothing to Me'

The party is frequently depicted as "extremist" or "racist" in the international media. (Which simply means its a threat to the status quo politicicians in Belgium) Its predecessor party, Vlaams Blok (Flemish Bloc), was dissolved in 2004 after being condemned as such by a Belgian court.

In an interview that appeared in German in November, Hanspeter Born of the Swiss weekly Die Weltwoche spoke with Vlaams Belang chairman Frank Vanhecke about the party's goal of independence for Flanders and the charges of racism against it. The interview appears here for the first time in English.

READ THE INTERVIEW

9-11 protest goes on anyway

Belgian riot police officers arrest Belgium's far-right party Vlaams Belang's President Frank Vanhecke during a banned demonstration organised by the "Stop the Islamisation of Europe" group in Brussels September 11, 2007. The demonstration, which coincides with the anniversary of the September 11th attacks, was banned by the mayor of Brussels on the grounds that it would threaten public order. (translation...it might upset the Muslims)

The police in Brussels have called on people to avoid the area around the European Parliament and the headquarters of the European Commission. Several hundred people turned up for the 'Stop the Islamisation of Europe' demonstation despite it having been banned by the Mayor of Brussels.
The Mayor of Brussels Freddy Thielemans (Francophone socialist) banned the march admit fears that trouble could flair between demonstrators and members of Brussels' sizable Muslim community.

Protesters turning up for the demonstration were met with a large police presence that used strong arm tactics to disperse them.

Dozens of people, including the Chairman of the far-right Vlaams Belang Frank Vanhecke and the party's leader in the Flemish Parliament Filip Dewinter, were detained and driven away by police. Dewinter protested loudly as he was driven away, adding that it was a democratic demonstration. Meanwhile, Mr Vanhecke told journalists that he couldn't understand why the demonstration had been banned.

The Brussels mayor would not allow these 9-11 protesters to gather but did allow a demonstration of leftwing conspiracy nuts who blame Jews and neocons for the 9-11 attacks to gather on September 9.