Filip Dewinter

Philip Michel Frans "Filip" Dewinter (born 11 September 1962) is a Belgian politician, journalist and commentator.

His father was studying medicine at the Leuven University during World War II, when he had to hide, as the threat of being deported by the Germans increased.

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.

[citation needed] Together with Hugo Coveliers of the VLOTT party, Dewinter formed a list cartel for the city elections of Antwerp on 8 October 2006.

[4] 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.

The incident was condemned by CD&V chairman Sammy Mahdi, MR chairman Georges-Louis Bouchez, and Flemish minister Zuhal Demir of the N-VA.[6] 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.

[8] On 6 November 1988, Filip Dewinter visited the Lommel German war cemetery where 40,000 bodies of Nazi Germany Wehrmacht soldiers of WWII were buried.

The Belgian police forces stopped the small rally and pushed them back; only holders of German citizenship were allowed to enter the cemetery.

Most of these persons were in the ranks of Nazis, anti Semites and other fascists like Bert Eriksson,[10] Staf De Clercq or other men convicted for treason like Cyriel Verschaeve or August Borms.

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.

[11]In addition, as noted by the Stephen Roth Institute, Dewinter has been interviewed by the American radio talk show The Political Cesspool.

[citation needed] In 2007 Dewinter took part in hosting the international counter-jihad conference in Brussels in the European and Flemish Parliaments.