sex and politics

Naturally, br dr. Arf

LESSON V : WORLD WAR II AND ITS IMPACT ON BELGIUM

WWII veterans memorial in Brussels. Photo by Guilliaume Dubé (source)

I briefly touched on this in the first two guest posts to explain how a portion of the Flemings looked to Germany to ‘liberate’ them from Wallonian/French occupation. This week, we’ll get a bit deeper into the matter, keeping in line with P’s post earlier this week about this subject…

ET POUR LES FLAMANDS LA MÊME CHOSE

The gripes of the Flemings, as noted, lay in the fact they were rated as second class citizens in Belgium. This was especially evidenced in World War I, when Flemish men served as cannon fodder – as many as 80% of the Belgian casualties were Flemish - and were subject of derision of the francophone officer corps. The phrase ‘Et pour les Flamands la meme chose’ still exists in our language culture as a reminder of this. Of course, it didn’t take long before a reaction to oppose to this treatment took shape, when the Flemish intellectuals founded the ‘Frontbeweging’ (Front Movement). After the WW I, they would take the lead in ensuring a monument was erected to remember the fallen. It was called the ‘IJzertoren’, after the fierce battle along the banks of the IJzer river during WW I. One of those aligned with the movement was catholic priest Cyriel Verschaeve. A romantic Flemish nationalist for most part, he would come to play a dubious part in the coming world war…

THE POLITICAL SIDE OF THINGS

Meanwhile, the Flemish hadn’t sat still on the political side of things. The first party to come to prominence was VERDINASO. The acronym stands for Verbond van Dietsche Nationaal Solidaristen (Union of Diets National Solidarists). They were led by Joris Van Severen, a charismatic dandy- like figure who evolved the party’s ideology from fervent anti- belgicist to ‘whole Dutch’, which means a unification of Belgium, Luxemburg, French Flanders (the north- western region of France, including Lille and Roubaix, which were, historically speaking, part of County Flanders) and the Netherlands, supported on the Netherlands’ geographical situation under Emperor Charles V. This party was fascist in structure, and Van Severen put together a militia of what he called ‘the best and brightest’, which were named ‘Brown Shirts’ and later, during German occupation, ‘Black Shirts’ after their uniform colours. Interestingly, they were financially supported by both The Vatican as well as dear old Adolf Hitler himself. The first had high hopes for VERDINASO, because they were rabiate anti- communist in nature and the latter, well, it doesn’t take a lot of guesswork to find what Adolf was after, right?

A word of explanation on ‘Diets’. It is a name to describe the language spoken in Holland and Belgium in around the 16th and 17th century, but for all Flemish movements, like VERDINASO that strove for reunification with Holland and become a separate entity within the Pan- Germanic Ideology of Nazi Germany. It’s also the basis for the English word Dutch, often confused with Duits (German).

Another pro- German and anti Belgian party, was Staf de Clerq’s VNV (I’m wondering whether the guys of VNV Nation are aware of this :mrgreen:). VNV in this case stands for Vlaams Nationaal Verbond (Flemish National Alliance). They were a force to be reckoned with and even got 16 parliamentary seats in the national election of 1936. De Lerq had a warped sense of humor when it came to dealing with Uncle Adolf’s invasion hunger. In 1939 he wrote in a pamphlet that VNV would be the first line of defense if Hitler ‘get it into his head to invade’ and they would kick damn good arse, but that tone was slightly altered into ‘Let’s cooperate with our Germanic brethren! They’re cool!’ after Hitler secured Belgium’s addition to Gross Deutschland. They, too, had a military bridage, called the Grey Shirts (guess why :P) and when they were merged with VERDINASO in 1941, the both of them became the feared Black Shirt Brigade.

So, did the Walloons sit still when it came to fascism? No way, Jose! They had REX and its El Maximo Lidér Léon Degrelle. The party, born out of Degrelle’s frustration with catholic politicians and clergy and a pro- fascist and anti- Marxist ideology rose to prominence in the years before WW II and even managed to get 21 seats in parliament as well as 14 in the Senate. They even had a Flemish pendant in REX Vlaanderen. They got their financial support from Benito Mussolini himself.

If you read this, you must conclude we had a great bunch of collaborators over here, didn’t we?

DURING THE WAR

So Adolf invades and it all comes together. VNV had the most clout, as Van Severen turned against the anti- Belgian sentiments and chose the government’s side when Hitler invaded. Still, he was arrested, sent to a prison camp in France, bur murdered by French soldiers on the way there.
VERDINASO, in the mean time, was usurped by VNV, and REX was marginalized, but still in (puppet) power in Wallonia. REX Vlaanderen was usurped by VNV, just as VERDINASO was. Both were forced to do this under German pressure. This didn’t bode well wit the REXists, who massively left the party. Several VERDINASO and VNV prominents who felt betrayed by the Germans, also chose to go underground and fight on the secret resistance’s side during the war.

Cyriel Verschaeve actively started to draft people to fight with the Germans on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union, still under the romantic notion that Flanders would be free under Germand reign.
VNV officially drafted people into service and actively helped to round up Jews for deportation. They, like VERDINASO and REX, had always had an anti- semitic sentiment, so it’s no surprise they willingly cooperated in the Jewish deportations in Belgium.
Their dreams of Flemish or even Diets/Dutch independence were squashed by the German occupiers, though.

AFTER THE WAR

Suffice it to say that these parties became outlawed after the war and were subject to what is called ‘The Repression’ in collaboration circles. Party members were incarcerated, stripped of their citizenship rights and generally harassed, just like non- denominational economic collaborators and women who had ‘fraternized’ with the enemy.
Staf De Clerq died in 1942, while his successor had already died on the Eastern Front. The more moderate Hendrik Elias then succeeded De Clerq and was sentenced to jail until he was released early due to deteriorating health issues.
Cyriel Verschaeve, given an honorary doctorate at the University of Köln, was evacuated by the SS to Austria, where he stayed until he died in 1949 in Solbad Hall. His body was exhumed by a ‘commando unit’ of the extreme right paramilitary organization VMO (Flemish Militant Order) under leadership of Bert Eriksson, to be reburied in Flemish soil. Eriksson claims to have done the same with the remains of Staf de Clerq, whose grave was defaced and ransacked by former resistance fighters.
Léon Degrelle escaped to Spain and was never extradited because he was close to Spain’s dictator Franco. He died in Malaga in 1994 from cardiac arrest. In the 80’s, he got into the news again, after having given a remarkable TV interview, which displayed his revisionist, fascist and anti semitic nature for all to see.
But the real victims here, are the people who actually followed these men and, of course, their multitude of victims. Through both their and REX’s efforts, a Flemish and Wallonian SS legion fought on the Eastern Front. Suffice it to say, they were looked down upon by their ‘true’ German counterparts, which would count for a lot of frustration after the war and result in minds twisted into negating the whole episode and glorifying it, since they were ousted by their own people as traitors when they came home. Some of the most die hard pro Hitler SS veterans today still hang on to their service in the SS on the Eastern Front as their only remaining measure of pride and self esteem. Having read interviews with these people, I am always baffled by their twisted line of reasoning so as to justify themselves and their deeds, while at the same time recognizing that these men are just as well the victims as the deported Jews, intellectuals, gays, resistance fighters and other undesirables under the Nazi regime. It accounts to a lot of hurt, anger and unresolved issues on both sides of the fence. One has to recognize that, especially in the case of some economic collaborators and women who fell in love with German soldiers, these people had no choice than to collaborate. You can’t choose who you fall in love with, right? And what would YOU do if your family’s well being was at stake? Not everyone is brave enough to stand up against troops with the overwhelming convincing arguments that are machine guns, deportation, plunder and rape.
An organization of Eastern Front veterans still gathers together every year, to sing old songs they sang together, recount old war stories and remember fallen comrades while flying the flag of their SS legion. It’s all they have left after a life of service for the wrong side and to be honest, I myself don’t begrudge these octogenarians their annual get- together. It’s all they have left in a life that’s not left them with much after they made the wrong choice for whatever reason. The general public didn’t even remember them until a moderate Flemish Nationalist politician was seen in their midst, after which old issues came to a head again. Belgium hasn’t finished its World War II yet, that much is certain. Only when the last survivor is dead, then might we attempt to start to come to terms with what happened. Might, because as long as extreme right Flemish Nationalist parties like Front Nationale and Vlaams Belang (who used to be named Vlaams Blok, after VNV’s moniker ‘Vlaams Nationaal Blok’ when they won their parliamentary seats in 1936) keep using VERDINASO’s and VNV’s political ideologies and strategies – not to mention the latter’s fascist party structure – to keep raising hate and racism and instill fear into the hearts and minds of the Wallonian and Flemish citizens.

And it’s not just Belgium that still reels from the after effects of this war. On route to visit Slovenia for the second time, in 2002, I encountered a friendly Bavarian man on his way to a friend’s birthday. He started talking to me, noticed I wasn’t German and we got to talking. When the subject turns to politics the man suddenly tells me : “You know, I still feel so ashamed for what we did to your country and others in the war”. Tears welled up in his eyes and I was quick to console him and say ‘Sir, this was a long time ago and we should be able to forgive and look to the future.” His answer was : “Yes, you’re right. But still…” We sat there in silence for a moment, pondering how a war that started sixty plus years ago still had such an effect on the both of us, talking in 2002. “Bury your dead and move on”? It’ll be a while yet, I fear…

Dr. ARF

After missing out for a week, here he is, bigger and better… The one and only…. Dr. ARF! I must admit that I’ve been looking forward to this post for some time now, because… well, there’s juicy scandals and then there are Belgian juicy scandals. Enjoy! I know I have

LESSON IV : SOME JUICY SCANDALS

What with our good P reporting on Slovene scandals (just recently about the vrtički) (pengovsky’s note: At last, someone noticed!), I felt I couldn’t stay behind and give you the scoop on a choice of happenings over here that politicians, industry fat cats and other good law abiding citizens do that they don’t want to see the light of day. Let’s roll…

Willy Claes, former NATO chief who had to resign because of Agusta scandal

The Pink Ballets

In the early eighties, in the wake of the attacks of the so- called Bende van Nijvel (The Nivelles Gang), police detectives and journalists – I forgot who got there first – discovered a network of high society people, ministers, police chiefs, army top brass, judges, magistrates and captains of industry mingling with top gangsters. They all got together in secret elaborate mass orgies with a plethora of hookers (allegedly minors too), wine and dine. Deals were made there, people were blackmailed there, indiscretions on a large scale were swept under rugs… You name it, it happened. It showed that there was a small yet powerful network that had each other’s backs when it came to running the country and running its businesses. Suffice it to say, it created an outrage within the public and was never heard of since.

Westland New Post and the Shooting Clubs

Also in the wake of the Gang of Nivelles reign of terror (which was from ’82 to ’86, in which they attacked supermarkets, emptied cash registers and killed customers in military commando style, highly organized), it became apparent there was an extreme right undercurrent running through the state police and the army. They all came together under the banner of Westland New Post, an extremist right wing paramilitary movement, which organized shooting clubs. Two State Police officers, Madani Bouhouche and Robert ‘Bob’ Beijer and a Walloon baron, Benoît de Bonvoisin, were members and were also suspected to have ties with the Nivelles Gang. Bouhouche and Beijer deserve their own chapter of scandals, really. They were also involved in killing weapons supplier Juan Mendez and the daylight robbery of a shipment of diamonds from Brussels National Airport. Nice cops we had here, in the 80’s… Robert Beijer was murdered, Bouchouche died under mysterious circumstances while living in France after his incarceration and de Bonvoisin has dwindled out of the limelight. And so has Westland New Post. Instead, we now have neo nazi skinheads, like everywhere else…
Funny side note : eleven years ago, I cooked for a camp of cub scouts on a terrain which lay next to Bonvoisin property. The weekly mag I read back then reported on the – still ongoing – investigation into… the Nivelles Gang attacks in the ‘80’s.

Patrick Haemers and the VdB kidnapping

Still in the mid ‘80’s, Brussels criminal Patrick Haemers kidnapped former prime minister Paul Vanden Boeynants. His accomplices were Axel Zeyen, Philippe Lacroix and a Kosovarian : Basri Bajrami.

Vdb, as he was then sympathetically known, was held in a villa in the north of France and released after payment of a hefty sum of money, now 1,5 million Euros. Haemers and his accomplices then escaped to Brazil and later extradited.
There are a few weird things going on here. First off, Haemers’ gang was specialized in robbing – rather brutally – money transports. Second, VdB was about to be indicted for embezzling state money and laundering it through his own meat processing company. While it was never sufficiently proven, it is widely accepted he staged his kidnapping. After all, he could afford it. Haemers getting caught was dangerous and could have implicated him. But Haemers died in his cell a while after being extradited. He hung himself… on his cell radiator. You’d really want to have to die to deliberately tightening the noose around your own neck when you can’t hang properly, don’t you? Or, how unlikely it may seem, Haemers was murdered because he knew too much. But that’s certainly not true, is it? Nah, couldn’t be : he really wanted to die, that’s the only real explanation…

Insteresting side note : Philippe Lacroix got back into the news a few weeks ago, when it became known that he had studied to get a teacher’s degree in prison and was now looking for work as a teacher. At least someone paid their debt to society as well as cleaned up their act…

AGUSTA

In the early ‘90’s, parliament needed to decide where to buy new helicopters. So, offers were made by companies and reviewed by a board. And after a meticulous selection process, the Italian company Agusta was chosen… Or, at least, that’s what the Belgian public thought.

But then came the news – those pesky investigative journos! – that bribes had been given to the key players in the selection process. And they were all from socialist parties. Walloons Guy Spitaels – or Dieu (God), as the Walloon socialists called him, Guy Coëme and Guy Mathot were behind it, as well as the Flemings Frank Vandenbroucke and then NATO secretary-general Willy Claes. No surprise when they all had to step down, albeit reluctantly.

But the clincher of this story is not the bribe, it is an interesting side note. Frank Vandenbroucke, then minister of Foreign Affairs, was assigned to take care of the bribe money in possession of the Flemish SP (now SP-a; the name change being a direct result of the Agusta scandal) felt he couldn’t do anything but… burn the money. And when questioned in court, he maintained he ‘didn’t know it was illegal to burn money’. As punishment, he got sent away to study in Oxford and later returned as minister in the last two administrations. We have a great sense for justice, don’t we?

The Dioxined Chickens and the Fall of the Christian Democrats

January 1999, six months before national elections. The Christian Democrats of the CVP have been in power for over 50 years. Nothing indicates at this time that this will change any time soon. Prime minister Jean-Luc Dehaene is a rough and tough politician and is set to lead the party to another victory.

But then, an animal fat processing company, Verkest, mixes animal fat with motor oil and the dioxin in it. This animal fat is used to feed other animals, mostly chickens. A few months down the line, a decline in egg laying and an increased death of chickens is noticed by food controlling agencies. So you’d think the involved ministers (of Agriculture and Public Health) would get the chooks out of the food chain, but while they did that, they also decide to cover up the mass scale of the crisis, until Flemish public TV station, VRT (no, not a garden, but Vlaamse Radio en Televisiemaatschappij – Flemish Radio and Television Broadcasting Company) brings it to light.
The involved ministers have to resign and since the whole scandal broke out right in the final election campaign weeks and people being tired of the long standing Stalinist reign of the Christian Democrats, it is the final blow for the party. They lose big time and in doing so paved the way for eight years of Liberal – Socialist government, which reign ended about a month ago and the now reformed and transformed CD&V is currently leading the formation talks for our new government…

Interesting detail : A guy with the surname Dehaene (translated : The Rooster) loses an election over a roost of poisoned chickens. Sometimes life can be so poetically just…

Dr. ARF

LESSON III : THE MONARCHY

Yet another Arfastic guest-post

Belgian Royal Couple: King Albert II. and Queen Paola. Pengovsky’s been to their crib

SO WHAT WAS IT?

It was an attempt of our neighbouring countries to have a king on the throne with ties to just about everyone of them, so as they would be guaranteed to have a friendly nation and retain their favourite battlefield. Little did they know that over time, the power of the royal family would dissipate and become all but non- existent…

WHAT IS IT NOW?

It used to be a powerful monarchy, just like everywhere else in the 19th century. But just like everywhere else, the nobility got overtaken by capitalist wealth and the introduction of democracy. And after WWII, the King Issue arose and that was kind of the start of a slow, fatal blow to the Belgian monarchy, which has become the head of state only in name, with an ever increasing number of voices on Flemish side to restrict the king’s role to merely ceremonial. And if you know who’s to come, that would not be such a bad idea in my opinion. But then, I am a republican by nature (not the American kind; the kind that opposes monarchist rule)…

A SHORT RECAP OF BELGIAN ROYAL HISTORY

… Is not on the menu today because, frankly, while it has some political significance, I would like to stick to what I know best about them and leave the rest to Wikipedia, where you can read all about the monarchs up to and including the ones I’ll address today. Suffice it to say, there’s a lot of subject matter there which could translate well into a historical royal soap opera. But it would just take me too long and I’d probably bore the death out of you anyway…

WHEN KING BAUDOUIN DESCENDED FROM HEAVEN

When young Baudouin (Boudewijn in Dutch) rose to the throne, he had a lot of public sympathy. After all, he lost his mum in a car accident and had to put up with – allegedly – a wicked stepmother who was rumoured to be after his cherry; a capital sin in the then very catholic Belgium. And he lost the Congo Colony, established by his great- grand uncle king Leopold II (whose bloody reign of terror decimated the Congolese populace after he established it as a colony). He got even more sympathy when he married the Spanish Fabiola de Mora y Aragon. A Spanish beauty for sure, but unfortunately also even more catholic than the pope. Still, after several miscarriages, the people loved and supported them, even though it was clear that religion had instilled some sort of messianic complex in him. Later evidence about talks between him and the dignitaries of those days clearly show that. Imagine that : Jesus came back in the shape of Belgian king Baudouin… I don’t think so.

But times change. And Belgium became less and less devout. And Baudouin became more of a fanatic catholic, letting Opus Dei and the Charismatic Movement into the Royal Court, largely due to Fabby. Also, he decided not to sign the Abortion Act in April 1990, allowing abortion under some circumstances, saying that it went against his conscience. The prime minister of that time, Wilfried Martens, had to perform a trick by declaring the king ‘unfit to rule’ for one day so parliament could sign the act to make it law. So our king was declared insane for a day. That’s Belgium for ya…

And what to say about the persistent rumour that after he let Congo have its independence, he knew of and agreed with the arrest and assassination of Congo’s Communist leader Patrice Lumumba in 1961? All this surfaced after he died, though, long after the facts.

Nevertheless, Baudouin still garnered a lot of support from the people, because he showed interest in them and always was the first to arrive after natural or other disasters had stricken a portion of Belgium’s populace. When he died on the last day of July ’93, it caused a mass reaction and people queued up at the palace for a week to greet his dead body. He was the last king that kind of kept Belgium together.

AFTER BAUDOUIN

Some sort of crisis emerged after Baudouin died. His brother Albert’s eldest son, Filip, was originally destined to become king, but was found unfit for the job. So his dad, who up till then had led a life of leisure, parties, mistresses and fast cars and motor cycles, grudgingly took to the throne, kind of like Emperor Claudius who was also a victim of circumstance (although Baudouin was anything but a Caligula :P). There’s not a lot to say about Albert, other than he is somewhat invisible, which is fine to most Belgians. That and the fact that in back in the day, he married the very hot Italian princess Paola Rufo di Calabria. She’s rumoured to have had her fair share of affairs when her hubby was doing the same, and given her looks back in the day, you can’t blame her. One of Albert’s sidesteps brought forth an illegitimate daughter : Delphine Boël. When this became public knowledge (it had been known for a while but never said out loud) the public outrage was more about him not acknowledging his daughter than having her in the first place. But The Palace won’t hear of it, to this day and to the dismay of poor Delphine.

And the royal women are a feisty bunch too, to say the least. Baudouin’s step mother, princess Liliane, couldn’t stand Fabiola and the dislike was mutual, so when Fabby became queen, she gave Liliane her marching orders, together with former king Leopold (who had to abdicate because of his dubious attitude during WW II in favour of Baudouin in 1950; the so called ‘King Issue’).
Fabby didn’t like any of the other women either, as she was at odds with Dolce Paola. Guess what happened when Paola became queen? You got it : Fabby got the boot herself and aside of her religious fervor, is nowadays mostly recognized for her absurd hair style and choice in hats (she’s the one on the right). Oh, and she used to write fairy tales too (no surprise there :P)…

There is a lot more to say about his sons, Filip and Laurent, though. Compared to Filip, Prince Charles is a jovial chap. Filip walks, talks and acts like he has a rod up his rectum and is equally convinced that he – and I quote – ‘is on a mission (from God)’. He got that idea in the aforementioned Charismatic Movement and from his uncle and aunt, key supporters of the CM within the palace. Also, the future king is supposed to remain neutral about everything involving politics, but since he feels he IS on a mission, he repeatedly has spoken out in favor of or against policies and even political parties. His latest blunder was at the Palace’s new year reception for the press, where he summoned two editors in chief and read them the riot act about their critical views on him. A famous stand up comedian has made a living just by chronicling the acts of stupidity of both Filip and his little brother year after year. Best known quote of Filip, after his first daughter was born : ‘It’s a female’ (instead of ‘It’s a girl’). Filip doesn’t speak Dutch very well, you see. Another reason why no one up North wants him to be king. He’s also rumoured to be gay and his kids being the product of artificial insemination. Whether or not that’s true can’t be determined at this time. It’s most likely a wild rumour, if you ask me. Sure, he has a rod up his butt, but that doesn’t mean squat in these days of sexual liberty, now does it? Incidentally, he shares his birthday with… me. Oh, the joy! Luckily, that’s where all similarities end…

And the prime beef of the family has to be Laurent. Everyone seems to be kind of moving between pity and ridicule when it comes to Laurent. Pity, because he’s always been the wild child, is not very intelligent and is clearly not liked by the rest of the family members. The late king Baudouin is rumoured to have sanctioned an abortion for one of Laurent’s girlfriends, after having gotten the blessing of Belgium’s cardinal Danneels, and he had a law passed that enabled women to become throne successors, in order to prevent Laurent from ever having a chance at the throne (his sister Astrid is now third in line, Laurent’s now 11th).

He lives a rebellious life, had several affairs, one of which was reportedly with the aging Natalija Verboten of Belgium, Wendy van Wanten (trust me, you DON’T want to know what her name stands for), who gave birth to a son by the name of Clément.
He loves fast and gas- guzzling cars, but at the same time has a foundation that ‘studies’ ecological projects. However, this is only a construction to keep him occupied, installed by one of the previous governments.
Recently, he was named and summoned in a corruption scandal in the Belgian Navy, where the Navy had ‘donated’ their money to the restauration of Laurent’s Villa Clémentine (daughter of king Leopold II, also much a rebel) and to his foundation. Laurent testified and said he knew nothing about the money. An enraged Albert then paid back to the Navy what Laurent supposedly owed him.

Laurent also complained that he ‘was poor and didn’t have succifient funds to live on and support his family’ (he’s married to Claire Coombs, daughter of an English father and a Belgian mother and has one daughter and twin sons).
He’s also the royal with at least a – questionable - sense of humor, but you’d have to at least know Dutch rather well in order to get his jokes. He’s been interviewed drunk, dressed up as Santa Claus and at festivals (which he called ‘sports’). His interest in beautiful women is also highly documented. And his love for dogs is a point of ridicule for the whole nation.

Nevertheless, when the Dutroux affair happened, he was the only royal who stopped his car when an angry mob was outside the Palace of Justice and tried to talk to them in order to get them to calm down. And he bravely took some insults (‘Why don’t you go and write another book about doggies!’; a reference to him saying he ‘wrote a book about doggies’. No, they really don’t speak Dutch all that well in the royal family). Laurent is a controversial guy, but if there still exists some sympathy for the royals in the Belgian populace, I think it lies largely with him.

So there you have it : sex, no drugs (that I know of, although… Looking at Filip, he must be on a permanent high :twisted:) more sex, religion, even more sex and more religion and a bit of rock ‘n roll at the end. That’s the Belgian monarchy for you. I don’t mind them existing, but I feel the institution is outdated and absorbs too much of our national budget. If we have to work for a living, why shouldn’t they? But chances are that the institution will become ceremonial, largely because Filip is viewed as a liability for the Belgian reputation. So we’ll see about that in a few years. At times, their antics are highly entertaining, but mostly they exist in a different dimension, far removed from the real life you and I live in. Vive la république!!

Next week my post will coincide with the Belgian National Holiday. High time for some scandals, methinks…

P.S. : Now I’m thinking of it : at the end of this guest series, I’d like to answer some questions you might have about all this. I’m very busy right now, so I don’t always have the time to answer right after posting. So perhaps you can think of some questions, I’ll provide you with an email address at the end of this series and I’ll pick 20 to answer. How about it?