Flemish Movement


The Flemish Movement is an umbrella term which encompasses various political groups in the Belgian region of Flanders and, less commonly, in French Flanders. Ideologically, it encompasses groups which have sought to promote Flemish culture and the Dutch language as well as those seeking greater political autonomy for Flanders within Belgium. It also encompasses nationalists who seek the secession of Flanders from Belgium, either through outright independence or unification with the Netherlands.
In the 19th century, the Flemish Movement emerged around a form of cultural patriotism which celebrated the regional traditions and history of Flanders and sought equal status for Dutch in the Belgian nation-state, often under the auspices of the Catholic Church. Although gaining a number of its initial objectives, it became increasingly radical in the aftermath of World War I. Inspired by authoritarian and fascist politics, it was widely discredited for its association with collaboration in German-occupied Belgium during World War II. However, it re-emerged in the post-war period under the auspices of the Volksunie and increasingly permeated into other parties in Flanders. It played an important role in Belgium's transformation into a federal state through the 1970s and 1980s.
The Flemish Movement's right wing is dominated by right-wing nationalist organizations such as Vlaams Belang, Voorpost, Nationalistische Studentenvereniging, and several others. The most radical group on the left side is the socialist and Flemish independentist Flemish-Socialist Movement. The militant wing also still comprises several moderate groups such as the New Flemish Alliance, and several extra-parliamentary organisations, a number of which are represented in the Overlegcentrum van Vlaamse Verenigingen. The most important of these is the Vlaamse Volksbeweging.
In recent history, the Flemish Movement has increasingly grown amid the 2007–2011 Belgian political crisis and its aftermath. Since 2010, the separatist N-VA party has been the biggest polled in Flanders, while Vlaams Belang has become the second largest in the 2019 federal and regional elections.

History

Early roots

In the Spanish and then Austrian Netherlands in the 18th century and until the Brabant Revolution, the language of the literate was Spanish and then gradually French, but accompanied by a vernacular language. Language problems did not arise at that time.
In 1788 Jan Baptist Chrysostomus Verlooy, a jurist and politician from the Southern Netherlands, wrote an essay titled Verhandeling op d'Onacht der moederlycke tael in de Nederlanden. It is considered to be the first movement in favour of the Flemish language, but also in favour of freedom and democracy.
Before the creation of the Belgian state, the French language had already been for centuries a lingua franca for the bourgeoisie and noble elites among Europe. With the French Revolution and Napoleon's conquests, today's Belgium was attached to France in 1795. France imposed its official language on the Belgian territory with the result of accelerating the conversion of the upper class from current Wallonia and Flanders to the French language.
At that time, most of the population however spoke Germanic languages and dialects in the north and south as well as Romance languages and dialects in the south of the territory which were not standardized and unified languages. Those people often could not understand or speak any French.

Belgian Independence

After the fall of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna of 1815 led to the creation of a buffer state: the United Kingdom of the Netherlands composed of today's Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium.
The United Kingdom of the Netherlands survived for a short period of 15 years; that was put to an end by the Belgian revolution. The revolution was due to a combination of factors, the main one being the difference of religion. Other important factors also played a role in the independence. Among those factors, we can cite:
  • The under-representation of Belgians in the parliament ;
  • The over-representation of Dutch people in the administration and important positions ;
  • The fact that the public debt of the Netherlands had to be supported by today's Belgium as well;
  • The diminution in the freedom of the press and freedom of assembly.
  • William I of the Netherlands imposed the standard Dutch everywhere in the Flemish-speaking part of Belgium, provoking the anger of the Flemish and of the French-speaking upper-class of today's Belgium. On 4 June 1830 linguistic freedom was however restored.
A common grievance of the Flemish movement is that the Belgian revolution was a will of the French-speaking Belgians. They invoke that the volunteers were mainly Walloons and from the French-speaking bourgeoisie. This argument has also been invoked by Walloon nationalists in the past.
Two studies conducted by prof. John W. Rooney Jr. and prof. Jean Stengers however contradict those statements. These studies have shown that the vast majority of the revolutionaries originated from Brussels and from the province of Brabant and were of modest origin. According to John W. Rooney Jr., between 73% and 88% of the dead and injured were from Brussels and 91% and 95% were from Brabant. Jean Stengers reaches the same conclusion. Prof. Els Witte comes to the same conclusion regarding the origin of the fighters. At the time, Brussels and the province of Brabant are mainly Brabantian-speaking, which shows that Flemish speakers actively took part in the Belgian revolution. Rooney concludes that 60% of the workers who took part in the revolution were Flemish speakers. According to the same study, the upper class accounted for only 5% of revolutionaries.
A large part of the Francophone Belgian elites were in fact opposed to the revolution and wanted to remain within the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, considering that their interests would be better served there. This led to a movement called "Orangism" which spread among a substantial part of the French-speaking elites of Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia.
After the Belgian revolution, protests occurred in large Flemish cities, notably in Ghent, where the textile industry was deeply hurt by the new political situation. Those events are however not to be misplaced in time, as they occurred months after the actual revolution.

French Flanders

Upon Belgium becoming an independent state from the Netherlands, there was an reaction against the Dutch and their language. In an attempt to remove Dutch from the new country, Belgian officials declared that the only official language in Belgium now was French. The Administration, Justice System, and higher education all functioned in the French language. Even Brussels, the capital where more than 95% of the population spoke Dutch, lacked a formal, state-sanctioned Flemish school of higher education. The consequence was that every contact with the government and justice was conducted in French. This led to a number of erroneous legal judgements where innocent people received the death penalty because they were not able to verbally defend themselves at trials.
The French-speaking Belgian government succeeded in removing the Dutch language from all levels of government more quickly in Brussels than in any other part of Flanders. Because the administration was centered in Brussels, more and more French-speaking officials took up residency there. Education in Brussels was only in French which led to a surplus of young, unskilled and uneducated Flemish men. Dutch was hardly taught in the French schools. For example: Dutch was worth 10 points in French schools, but drawing earned 15 points. Today 16% of Brussels is Dutch-speaking, whereas in 1830 it was over 95%.
The French-speaking bourgeoisie showed little respect for the Flemish portion of the population. Belgium's co-founder, Charles Rogier, wrote in 1832 to Jean-Joseph Raikem, the minister of justice:
"Les premiers principes d'une bonne administration sont basés sur l'emploi exclusif d'une langue, et il est évident que la seule langue des Belges doit être le français. Pour arriver à ce résultat, il est nécessaire que toutes les fonctions civiles et militaires soient confiées à des Wallons et à des Luxembourgeois; de cette manière, les Flamands, privés temporairement des avantages attachés à ces emplois, seront contraints d'apprendre le français, et l'on détruira ainsi peu à peu l'élément germanique en Belgique."
"The first principles of a good administration are based upon the exclusive use of one language, and it is evident that the only language of the Belgians should be French. In order to achieve this result, it is necessary that all civil and military functions are entrusted to Walloons and Luxemburgers; this way, the Flemish, temporarily deprived of the advantages of these offices, will be constrained to learn French, and we will hence destroy bit by bit the Germanic element in Belgium."
In 1838, another co-founder, senator Alexandre Gendebien, even declared that the Flemish were "one of the more inferior races on the Earth, just like the negroes".
The economic heart of Belgium in those days was Flanders. However, Wallonia would soon take the lead due to the Industrial Revolution. The Belgian establishment deemed it unnecessary to invest in Flanders and no less than 80% of the Belgian GNP between 1830 and 1918 went to Wallonia. This had as a consequence that Wallonia had a surplus of large coal mines and iron ore facilities, while Flanders, to a large extent, remained a rural, farming region. When Belgium became independent, the economy of Flanders was hard hit. Antwerp was now almost impossible to reach by ships and foreign trade was drastically affected. The prosperous textile industry of Ghent lost a major portion of its market to Amsterdam.

A call for change

It was decades after the Belgian revolution that Flemish intellectuals such as Jan Frans Willems, Philip Blommaert, Karel Lodewijk Ledeganck, Ferdinand Augustijn Snellaert, August Snieders, Prudens van Duyse, and Hendrik Conscience began to call for recognition of the Dutch language and Flemish culture in Belgium. This movement became known as the Flemish Movement, but was more intellectual than social, with contributors such as the poets Guido Gezelle,, and Albrecht Rodenbach.
Cultural organizations promoting the Dutch language and Flemish culture were founded, such as the Willemsfonds in 1851, and the Davidsfonds in 1875. The first Vlaemsch Verbond and the Nederduitse Bond, were founded in 1861. The Liberale Vlaemsche Bond was founded in 1867. Writers such as Julius de Geyter and Max Rooses were active in the Nederduitse Bond. On 26 September 1866, Julius de Geyter founded the Vlaamsche Bond in Antwerp. The Flemish weekly magazine Het Volksbelang, founded by Julius Vuylsteke, appeared for the first time on 12 January 1867.
In 1861, the first Flemish political party, the Meetingpartij was founded in Antwerp, by radical liberals, Catholics and Flamingants, and it existed until 1914. In 1888, Julius Hoste Sr. founded the moderate liberal Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws, to support the Flemish Movement in Brussels. In 1893, the Flemish priest Adolf Daens, founded the Christene Volkspartij, which would cause a radicalization and democratization of the Catholic party. The first Flemish political success was the passing of the Gelijkheidswet in 1898 that for the first time recognized Dutch as equal to French in judicial matters.