[2] By summer 1917, the group had re-emerged in secret and, organised by Corporal Adiel de Beuckelaere, this new version, known as the Frontbeweging, set up a structure of representatives and committees across the army.
[3] With de Beuckelaere, a Ghent schoolteacher, and other leaders such as Joris Van Severen coming from an intellectual background they attempted to articulate their demands by sending a letter to King Albert calling for a separate Flemish Army and self-government for Flanders within Belgium.
[3] The movement was soon formalised as a political party, adopting the name Frontpartij and continuing its campaigns for army segregation and internal self-government, as well as adding policies such as Dutch language teaching in schools and Ghent University.
[7] Van Severen lost his seat in the latter election, however, and removed from the centre of the party and having become a disciple of Charles Maurras and admirer of Benito Mussolini, he set up his own journal, Jong Dietschland which argued for the establishment of an independent 'Greater Netherlands' in which Dutch people, Flemings and Frisians would unite in this "Dietsch" state.
[6] The plan won support amongst the students of Ghent but the war veterans that made up much of the membership of the Frontpartij were unimpressed and the party organ De Schelde specifically condemned fascism.