Welcome to The Flemish Republic
Why the Belgian federation should be dissolved and Flanders should become an independent state. |
|
 News
Meet President Van Rompuy
11/27/2009 :: Master of Compromise
Flemings do not like their Belgian state. They despise it. They say it represents nothing. They are no Belgian patriots, because no-one loves a flag which does not represent anything. Belgian politics is by definition deeply immoral because without patriotism, without a country to love, politicians can only serve their own self-interest.
The new European President, Herman Van Rompuy, realizes this more than anyone. He is extremely intelligent but equally cynical. 25 years ago, he went through a crisis of conscience and confessed to the Flemish journalist Paul Belien that he wanted to leave politics. Both Van Rompuy and Belien were deeply influenced by the Flemish political philosopher Lode Claes. In 1985, in his book De Afwezige Meerderheid (The Absent Majority), Claes (1913-1997) argued that without identity and a sense of genuine nationhood, there can also be no democracy, no respect for the rule of law and no morality.
Shrewd
In the mid-1980s, Claes offered Van Rompuy, a young Christian-Democrat and conservative Catholic, the opportunity of succeeding him as the director of Trends, a Belgian financial-economic weekly magazine. It is in this context that Belien made Van Rompuy’s acquaintance. “He invited me for lunch one day to ask whether, if he accepted the offer to enter journalism, I would be willing to join him. It was then that he told me that he was considering leaving politics,” Belien wrote in a recent article on his website The Brussels Journal. “I am not sure what happened next, however. Maybe word had reached the leadership of the Christian Democrat Party that Herman, a brilliant economist and intellectual, was considering leaving politics; perhaps they made him an offer he could not refuse. He was made a Senator and entered government as a junior minister. In 1988, he became the party leader of the governing Christian-Democrats.”
Van Rompuy was asked to sell his soul. This he did. Though he had always said to be an opponent of abortion, in 1990, as leader of the Christian-Democrats, he made it possible for a very liberal abortion bill to pass. In an article in the British newspaper The Daily Mail (Nov. 21, 2009), Belien calls him “a shrewd master of the shabby compromise.”
Instead of leaving Belgian politics, which he knows to be immoral and undemocratic, Van Rompuy embraced it and made it to the top.
Say Hello to Turkey
Some people hope that EU President Herman Van Rompuy will prevent Turkey from joining the EU. “Those who have known him in the Belgian Parliament harbour no such illusions,” says Francis Van den Eynde, a Vlaams Belang MP and member of the foreign affairs committee of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives. “Van Rompuy has a long record of breaking his own principles and promises, from ethical issues, such as abortion, to issues relating to the constitutional rights of the Flemish people in Belgium.”
It is true that Van Rompuy in a speech in the Belgian Parliament, in 2004, opposed Turkey’s admission to the EU: “Turkey is not Europe and will never be Europe,” he said. “It is a matter of fact that the universal values which are in force in Europe, and which are also fundamental values of Christianity, will lose vigour with the entry of a large Islamic country such as Turkey.” Exactly. But does Van Rompuy mean it?
In 2004, Van Rompuy was in opposition and was criticizing the Belgian government which favoured Turkey’s admission. However, since he became a member of the Belgian government, he has remained silent on Turkey, despite the fact that he considers the issues of fundamental importance for the Christian values about which he claims he cares so much. Now that he has become President of Europe, Van Rompuy says “that his own opinion no longer matters.”
“I would not be surprised to see Van Rompuy advocate Turkish EU membership soon,” says Mr. Van den Eynde.
Say Hello to Taxes
“In the Belgian Parliament, Herman Van Rompuy was an opponent of tax reductions,” says Hagen Goyvaerts, a Vlaams Belang MP and member of the finance committee of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives. “In Europe, too, he is likely to continue the tax and spend policies.”
At a secretive Bilderberg meeting a few days before his appointment as EU President, Van Rompuy called for taxes to be imposed directly by the EU. The Lisbon Treaty has given the EU new taxation powers. Previous treaty law only demanded that taxes in member countries must not interfere with the functioning of the market. Lisbon adds the imperative that taxes in EU member states must also avoid the “distortion of competition.” Hence, taxes have to be ‘harmonized’ – read ‘equalized’ – across the whole EU, which in practice means that they will be raised to the highest level.
“Tax policy is a symbol and an important element of national sovereignty. This is why Van Rompuy opposed the right of the Belgian regions, such as Flanders and Wallonia, to raise their own taxes,” says Mr. Goyvaerts. “I expect the same thing to happen in Europe. More than anything else, Van Rompuy wants to see the destruction of national control over taxes. That is because his political ideal is to destroy the national sovereignty of EU member states.”
Say Hello to Global Governance
“Herman Van Rompuy is your typical centralizing technocrat,” says Rita De Bont, a Vlaams Belang MP and member of the constitutional affairs committee of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives.
Speaking at his first press conference after his election as EU President, Van Rompuy said; “2009 is also the first year of global governance with the establishment of the G20 in the middle of a financial crisis. The climate conference in Copenhagen is another step toward the global management of our planet.”
“He is very clever,” says Ms. De Bont, “and he feels that it entitles him to meddle in the affairs of everyone else.”
Previous page
|
|
|
