Belgian nationalism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Belgian nationalism (or Belgicistic nationalism; Dutch: Belgicisme; French: Belgicanisme) defines an ideology that favours a strong centralized government, with less or no autonomy for the Flemish Community, French Community of Belgium, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and the Brussels-Capital Region, as well as their regional and ethnic counterparts within Belgium. It insists on restoring total sovereignty of the Belgian state level, after decades of state structure reforms that made Belgium a federal state since the 1970s - contrary to Flemish nationalists who advocate independence of their region. Belgian nationalists advocate the unity between all language groups in Belgium, and condemn each perceived chauvinistic or linguistic discrimination, advocate the knowledge of all official languages (Dutch, French, German) and a multicultural, tolerant, strong feeling of citizenship.

Belgian nationalism is mainly supported by French-speaking politicians, alongside many extreme-left-wingers and certain circles in Brussels. Though there is popular support in all regions of Belgium, political parties that support this ideology openly have not gained much electoral support in recent years.

[edit] Advocates

Political parties with strong Belgian or regional nationalistic ideology:

• Belgische Unie/Union Belge (BUB/Belgian Union), Belgian centrist Unionist party, officially bilingual but in practice mainly Dutch-speaking.
• Historically, Verdinaso has advocated a version of Belgian identity centered on Fascism

Political parties with certain Belgian nationalistic elements in their programmes:

• Mouvement Réformateur (MR/Reform Movement), French-speaking liberal party with a strong nationalist programme,