The Cordon Sanitaire Tightens Around Vlaams Belang

For the last fifteen years or so the establishment political parties in Western Europe have dealt with the rising popularity of nationalist and anti-immigrant parties by forming a cordon sanitaire around them — the French term has been borrowed to describe the way all the Good People quarantine a contagion of right-wing thinking. All the non-nationalist parties refuse to form a coalition with the “right-wing extremists”, and negotiate with one another until some sort of government can be formed without them. If necessary, the center-right, the socialists, and the Greens will join together to stop the populist tide.

As far as I know, the term was first used to describe what was done to Vlaams Belang in Flanders and Belgium. Later it was applied to the treatment of Geert Wilders and the PVV in the Netherlands, and then Sverigedemokraterna in Sweden. I’m certain the same method will be used when necessary against the AfD in Germany.

And now a cordon sanitaire has once again been used against Vlaams Belang after the party won a municipal election in a Flemish town.

Many thanks to Ava Lon for translating this French-language report, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Video transcript:

00:00   And now we go to Ninove. It’s a Flemish county west of Brussels.
00:04   It almost allowed the breaking of the cordon sanitaire, which would install
00:08   Vlaams Belang in power. They are the big winners in local elections.
00:12   But finally, after much ado, the new majority is made up of
00:16   a big coalition; so, WITHOUT Vlaams Belang, and given the situation,
00:20   the [electoral] college, which will be installed officially this Thursday,
00:24   won’t have an easy task. Maxime Binet:
00:28   How to counter the rise of right-wing extremism?
00:32   In Ninove this question has been asked since the last county elections.
00:36   It’s one of the main challenges that are the target of the new municipal authorities.
00:41   There is perhaps an identitarian crisis,
00:45   but we need to take into account the opinion of the citizens.
00:49   In October 2018 Vlaams Belang
00:53   became the main party in Ninove. With such a score, many thought
00:57   that the Flemish extreme right wing was going to govern the town.
01:01   A large coalition had to be created to prevent them from prevailing.
01:05   During the last elections, Vlaams Belang received 40% of the vote in Ninove. That means
01:08   that there are problems in Ninove, problems that need to be identified.
01:11   We noticed in the results that
01:18   the migration question came up very often. We said: OK.
01:22   We need to better accommodate the new arrivals, so they would feel really integrated
01:26   in Ninove. And in order to overcome this phenomenon,
01:30   Ninove is incidentally planning to fight harder against discrimination
01:34   and racism. But this isn’t the only problem on the agenda. To improve
01:38   coexistence and security are also important issues.
01:42   The first point, really, is to improve security, but integration as well,
01:46   and also to improve social policy and the economy.
01:50   The new county [electoral] college of Ninove will take the oath
01:54   at the end of the afternoon around 5pm, under those new policies.
01:58   Those elected are hoping to limit the progress of Vlaams Belang in their town.
 

9 thoughts on “The Cordon Sanitaire Tightens Around Vlaams Belang

  1. Stupid woman still thinks it’s possible to integrate the incomers. 1400 years and they’ve never integrated anywhere. They don’t integrate – they dominate.

    • She talks about both integration and coexistence – typical establishment mouthpiece, doesn’t know what she’s talking about.

  2. It is all in this detail “It’s a Flemish county west of Brussels.”. Belgium is the best example I could think of integration, where the motto “diversity is our stregth” is most applicable. (And if belgium was not melted inside europe it would be just another bosnia). I do not know who the fault and shame belong to, but any such a state with a state always trying to stand on one side only (most often the external side of french establishment), is a failure. Belgium could be a bit like switzerland, but it was all done in the wrong way from the constitution. It is not an extraordinary fact that the muslims created their sharia ruled zone in the “capital city” of europe. They found in the rotten and divided society of bruxelles the perfect place where the islamic cancer could grow its roots well. I heard that during the terrorist attacks of 2016, the local police could not even speack to each other because the city there is divided in flemish and french speakers and officers do not dare to communicate if not same language speaker. And these idiots should (are) then coordinate all counter terrorism of europe and passing informations in real time, when they would not give infos to the police of the other part of the city.
    The good hopes now that the government fell last month are that a new force takes power, more representing of the people will. But belgium is also a country who could go on for almost another 2 years with no government at all, under technocratic rules.

  3. European history has apparently been dropped from the Belgian curriculum? They’ll soon be writing new material on that subject.

  4. Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd………………………. let us AGAIN congratulate ourselves in our enlightened ability to thwart the express wishes of our population in it’s choice of rulers.

    We cannot–and MUST not–allow the masses to make that kind of choice.
    We–WE will be the ones to decide. What could possibly go wrong with that?

  5. Unbelievable. This idiot woman believes it is her first and foremost duty to serve the foreign invaders and to keep all those opposed to population replacement out of business. Despicable.

  6. It is a loyalty situation.

    The installed government is not loyal to the citizen of that county. It is illegitimate.

    Civil Unrest is in their future, because the plan proposed has not worked, does not work, and will not work.

  7. It’s incredible that she is actually using the word “integration”. Where in the whole of the European continent do you find Muslims truly integrating with the host society? Look at what happens to their daughters should they try to integrate too much.

    It’s just a load of rubbish and completely disingenuous to even pretend that there is any desire to integrate, and most certainly not when it comes to customs and culture, that is for sure. Just how long can people go along with this charade?

  8. This woman is Tania De Jonghe, and I’m ashamed to say that she is far, far related to me on my mother’s side. She’s of the liberal “Open VLD” party, and again set to be mayor, for six years (actually, she has only been mayor for three years, municipal cycles take 6 years in Belgium and in Ninove half of that was first done by Michel Casteur, another “Open VLD” mayor, Madam De Jonghe took over from him three years ago.

    What happened in Ninove was downright scandalous. Never before has there been such a monster score for Vlaams Belang. NEVER BEFORE. A staggering 40 per cent! The ‘coalition’ which has now been cobbled together encompasses every other party, so that people who voted N-VA (“Vlaams Belang Lite”) will now get also socialist town selectmen and the few who voted PVDA (communists) will get liberal town selectmen, in other words, every citizen no matter from what party was cheated on. EVERY trick was used to keep the dreaded VB from power. I could elaborate on and on, but I kinda lost heart.

    From the national level, orders came down to local representatives of all parties involved to NOT dare to try to form a coalition with VB. The hatred for this party – my party – is simply irrational. It’s as if VB politicians eat babies for breakfast.

    Schild en Vrienden and the VB staged a demo on JAN 3 in Ninove, a “March for Democracy”. Had I been in country – I was in Poland, where things go swell and there is no islam and thus no terrorism – I would have participated.

    I did participate in the DEC 16 demo against the UN Pact and was teargassed ‘à volonté’ for expressing my opinion in a peaceful manner. Some 90 people were rounded up, luckily for only a short time for most of them.

    BY CONTRAST, on JAN 1, Molenbeek was the scene of violent riots with shops busted, a pharmacy looted, cars and vans set on fire (and the fire spreading to two houses), public infrastructure destroyed etc etc. Police was NOT ABLE to arrest a single individual, let alone identify someone. Indeed, an officer admitted that they were ‘powerless’.

    Or how in Belgium decent citizens are teargassed and rounded up, and arsonists let off.

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