Monday, October 09, 2006

One of the oddest things about spending time with a district party group of Liberal Democrats last night as the election results were revealed, was the realisation that back in 2002 I was studying EU politics at Otago University in New Zealand ... we were researching the rise of the neo-nazi political parties here in Europe.

Yesterday I watched the election results unfold and saw the bizarre power of extreme right neo-nazi rhetoric, as villages with few foreigners and low crime rates voted for the neo-nazis in surges that took that particular party from 0% up to 15% in some places.

Here in the cities there was something different ... although Dewinter's neo-nazis still received 95,000 Antwerpen votes, his personal votes were finally down ... for the first time in about 15 years.

Belgians lose patience when trying to explain to me that neo-nazis are the only ones who haven't held power ... and by virtue of this, have never messed up the country but my argument has to be 'But a protest vote or a vote to change going to the neo-nazis???. What do you imagine they're going to improve about Belgium's economic or international standing?'

And so it seems Belgium is doomed to live out the reality of that old Chinese curse ... 'May you live in interesting times'.

Let's hope that the new coalition of all those parties who only hold the majority by virtue of joining together, are not so weakened by the merging of their political beliefs in the forming of that one voice to block the neo-nazis ... let's hope that they can actually move Belgium forward in positive ways.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The results of yesterdays election in Antwerp were quiet staggering. I don't know how on heaven's earth the VLD managed to fall so heavily. Nor do I get the 16% rise for the SP.a. It seems the SP.a has gone to extreme, as in populistic measures (see Janssens presidential campaign) to stop the VLaams Belang. It's a good thing, that they could slow it down. But it's a bad thing if they need to do it by campaigning as well Godly like creations who have entered the world to save it and stop the danger. I fear that Belgium might get into a very nasty situation with the next elections. A civil war needs to be prevented because it can get very very nasty.

I saw on Nova, the Netherlands, a report about Schoten. Someone had lighted fire onto a sign of the Vlaams Belang, in the front yard of a person. This is shoking and a dangerous precedent. I heard about post men dumping election magazines of rivaling parties in dumbsters. This is a dangerous precedent. How far will and can we go to stop neo nazis? Is all allowed in the war against it? Or is someone going to say, the people don't know what is good for them? Like I said, I fear for a civil war, and it will get nasty.

Pam said...

FYI, Di, I hear that as rationalization for voting far right here in Austria too - "It's a protest vote." But why not vote Communist or Green as a protest vote? Why pick an openly racist party as the place to express that protest?

I call bullshit on the protest vote excuse.

Di Mackey said...

I didn't want to post on this stuff but how can I not ...?

Pam said...

You should see all the not posting at my house. :)

Alison said...

How can a country that was once occupied, vote in the occupiers once more...? How soon we forget