Extreme right in Belgium

Type :

Term papers

Pages :

9 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

01/09/2009

Category :

Arts & media

Sub category :

Journalism

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Summary :

Introduction.
The emergence of the modern Extreme Right movement.
1. The failure of the Front National.
2. The growing success of the Vlaams Blok or Vlaams Belang.
'The Extreme Right Utopia' in Belgium: The case of the Vlaams Blok/Vlaams Belang.
1. Ingroups and outgroups: Ethnocentricism and solidarism.
2. Immigration as a threat: Racism, xenophobia and islamophobia.
Extreme right voters in Belgium.
1. Who votes for the extreme right parties?
2. Some explanations of this vote.
Belgium: an exception?
1. Extreme right at the European level: A review of the extreme right presence in Europe.
2. European's public opinion: a democratic disenchantment.
Conclusion.

Abstract

In September 2006, seventeen people have been arrested in belgium for allegedly planning attacks aimed at "destabilising" the country's institutions, 10 of these 17 people where soldiers and the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement that they are people with an extreme-right ideology who clearly express themselves through racism, xenophobia, Holocaust denial, anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism". What happened in the army is only a reflection of what happens in this society. Indeed, the most popular political party in Flanders is an extreme right one called the Vlaams Blok with 18, 1% of the votes in 2003. And in the Walloon region, the French speaking part of belgium, the extreme right Front National has also a significant popularity. The extreme right in belgium is a real issue and its increasing success drives us to wonder how and why this success can be possible? The issue has extensively preoccupied the minds of politicians, social scientists, the media and the public, at large. It has been applied to radical political parties, fringe organisations, clandestine groups and a range of violent racist activities. While the extreme right is easily recognisable, there is virtually an absence of definition in most of the existing scholarly studies. Some have defined the extreme right in terms of opposition to democracy, and others in terms of racist and ultra-nationalistic attitudes.