Filip Dewinter
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Philip Michel Frans "Filip" Dewinter (born 11 September 1962) is a Belgian politician, journalist and commentator. He is one of the leading members of Vlaams Belang, a right-wing Flemish nationalist and secessionist political party.
Family background and education
Dewinter's grandfather on his mother's side was a resistance fighter who had been very active in the resistance group, the Witte Brigade (White Brigade), in Blankenberge.<ref>With the view of harming the image of Dewinter in the eyes of part of his electorate, the Flemish newspaper De Morgen (The Morning) made known Dewinter's rather politically correct family origins. Later on, Dewinter confirmed the resistance of his grandfather and the deportation of his father, including to the Flemish Jewish magazine Joods Actueel, to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and on his own web site Template:Webarchive.</ref><ref>In an interview Template:Webarchive with Etienne Vermeersch, he countered this philosopher on this subject and reminded him of his own father, who had been a member of the VNV (Flemish National Union) and hence bound by the choice of this political party to collaborate with the Germans during the occupation of Belgium.</ref><ref>Adi Schwartz, A little-known story in Haaretz (28 August 2005): "After being asked whether his increasing closeness to Jews and Israel is a tactical move, he responds: "This is perhaps not proof, but this will explain to you a bit who I am. Many people think I come from a family of collaborators, but I do not. My father was a young medical student during the war. His studies were interrupted during the war and he was due to be taken to forced labor in Germany. But he fled from the Germans and managed to elude them for several months. They caught him, threw him in prison and ultimately sent him to do forced labor. I saw pictures of him when he returned from the war. He had nothing and he was sick. He never became a doctor and his career was ruined. My grandfather was also a member of the Resistance. He fought against the Germans as a police officer".</ref>
Political career
In 1983, he became a member of Vlaams Blok. In November 1987, he was elected member of the Belgian parliament, in which he formed a political faction with Gerolf Annemans (who, earlier that year, had succeeded to founder-Flemish Block president Karel Dillen). Under Dewinter's leadership, the parliamentary group continued to grow, notably in 1991, when the Flemish Block, from a small party, grew to about 12% of the voters.
In 2010, he participated in a conference in Israel organised by Likud on the fight against terrorism.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
An extreme right-wing activist is sentenced to five years in prison in 2014 for planning the murder of Filip Dewinter, hoping to drag Belgium into civil war.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In October 2022, Dewinter was physically assaulted by a left-wing activist while giving a talk at a community centre in Kessel-Lo. The incident was condemned by CD&V chairman Sammy Mahdi, MR chairman Georges-Louis Bouchez, and Flemish minister Zuhal Demir of the N-VA.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
On March 25, 2024, an investigation by Humo magazine and the Apache website revealed that Filip Dewinter had worked for several years as a "senior political advisor" for China.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
One month later it was revealed that Filip Dewinter was also involved in the then uncovered Russian Influential Network "Voice of Europe".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Views
Controversies
Filip Dewinter was the guest speaker for a gathering of the former SS-collaborators of Sint-Maartensfonds which took place on 1 December 2001. That evening, Filip Dewinter opened his speech with the words "My Honour is loyalty" which was the official motto of the German SS-soldiers during WWII.<ref name="vb-df">Template:Cite journal</ref>
Dewinter has also been interviewed by the Israeli paper Haaretz. About the collaboration of Flemish nationalists during WWII he had to say:
Many Flemish nationalists collaborated during the war because they thought—and now it is clear that they were wrong—that this would help them achieve independence for Flanders. This is the whole story. The overwhelming majority were not Nazis. They collaborated in order to attain independence and because the Church called upon them to go out and fight the Communists—something that Western Europe continued to do for 50 years. Now, in 2005, it is easy to say: 'The collaboration was a mistake.' The collaboration did not help our country at all; we just became a vassal state of Germany. At the time, it was logical, because of the Church, because of communism. But this has no connection with Nazism.<ref name="filipdewinter.be">[1] Template:Webarchive</ref>
About the attendance of party members to ceremonies marking the death of Staf De Clercq he responded:
He is one of the historic leaders of the party. This is part of the history of the Flemish nationalist movement and it is impossible to deny this. We are the descendants of this movement. Some of the members of the party attend these events because they want to honor the heritage of the Flemish movement. This does not mean that they agree with Nazism. Not at all. I understand that this is hard to understand as a Jew. I respect very much that Jews have a problem with this. But Jews must also understand that this is not as simple as it seems. Not all of the [Nazi] collaborators wanted to kill the Jews in Europe. Most of the collaborators had other motives. I think that if they were living today, most of them would be ashamed of what happened to the Jews. The only thing I can do today is to say that I respect very much the suffering of the Jewish people, to express my sympathy and condolences about what happened and to try to move far away from this. But the Jewish people must understand that not every collaborator was necessarily anti-Semitic.<ref name="filipdewinter.be"/>
Judaism and Islam
A December 2005 interview by Dewinter with the American Jewish newsweekly The Jewish Week included a question if "Jews should vote for a party that espouses xenophobia". Dewinter responded by saying: "Xenophobia is not the word I would use. If it absolutely must be a 'phobia,' let it be 'Islamophobia.'"<ref>[2] Template:Webarchive</ref>
In 2007 Dewinter took part in hosting the international counter-jihad conference in Brussels in the European and Flemish Parliaments.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Quotes
- "Vlaams Blok says: Our own people first!! And yes, Vlaams Blok chooses a Flemish Flanders. And yes, Vlaams Blok chooses a white Europe!" (Vlaams Blok-meeting, 1991).<ref>Template:Cite video Original in Dutch: Eigen volk eerst, een Vlaams Vlaanderen en... een blank Europa.
</ref><ref> Template:Cite web</ref>
- "He who sows the Koran reaps the jihad".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- "[Immigrants] turn themselves into self pity. They become hostile, they cause nuisance and show criminal behaviour. In Flanders the multicultural society led to a multicriminal society."<ref>Metro, 16 June 2005</ref>
- "Staf de Clercq is one of the historical leaders of the Flemish national movement. Our party, the Vlaams Belang, is the continuator of this movement. We may not deny this past. Although I realise that it might be difficult for Jewish readers to understand, most collaborators thought that they could realise an independent Flanders by cooperating with the Germans. Most of them are ashamed of the horror they caused. The only thing I can do today is to show understanding for the suffering of the Jewish people."<ref>Ha'aretz, 31 August 2005</ref>
Notes
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