Verdinaso was founded by Joris Van Severen, Jef François, Wies Moens, and Emiel Thiers on 6 October 1931 at a meeting in the Hôtel Richelieu in Ghent.

[10] The party remained small but succeeded in attracting several young students and intellectuals inspired by Italian Fascism and Portugal's Estado Novo.

It proposed the union of Flanders with the Netherlands to form a Dietsland or Diets Rijk ("Dietsch Empire"), justifying this based on a shared history of the two lands under the Burgundians, and the emblematic rule of Charles I.

In 1932, two of its leaders, François and Van Severen, were elected to the Chamber of Deputies; the same year, the party was joined by Victor Leemans, who wrote the work Het nationaal-socialisme, an apology for National Socialism.

[12] The party virulently opposed Communism on the left and liberal capitalism on the right; it was also somewhat antisemitic, occasionally venting the opinion that Jews, as well as Freemasons constituted a hidden power working against the interests of Dietsland.

Some Verdinaso members, who advocated a strong Belgian authoritarian regime around King Leopold III, however, joined the resistance against the German occupation.