Vlaams Blok (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈvlaːmz ˈblɔk], VB; English: Flemish Block) was the name of a Belgian far-right and secessionist political party with an anti-immigration platform.

The party initially focused solely on the issues of Flemish autonomy and political freedom, which remained its core philosophy, but subsequently gained wider public support through broadening its campaigns to include immigration and law-and-order themes.

[7] The Vlaams Blok originated from the loose Flemish Movement, which historically has included an array of organisations seeking, to varying degrees, to promote Flanders.

[8] The early organised political expression of Flemish nationalism was triggered by World War I, and the introduction of universal suffrage and proportional representation in elections.

[8][10] These circumstances would compromise the re-emergence of Flemish nationalism after the war, although only a faction of the broader movement had actually pursued an agenda of collaboration.

[17][18] The parties contested the 1978 general elections in a coalition called "Vlaams Blok", where they won 1.4% of the vote and one seat in the Chamber of Representatives (taken by Dillen).

[22] Starting in 1983, the Vlaams Blok increasingly began focusing on immigration (inspired by the success of other European right-wing populist parties), and on the international day against racism in 1984 held its first conference to discuss the "foreigner problem."

[22][23][24] The same year, Dillen proposed a bill in the Chamber of Representatives to offer cash incentive for immigrants to return to their native country.

[23] In April 1987, a group around Roger Frankinouille of the only right-wing competitor to the Vlaams Blok, the anti-tax Respect for Labour and Democracy, switched to the party.

[30][31] Although intended to keep the Vlaams Blok from gaining political influence, many argued that the cordon sanitaire in reality helped the strong electoral surge for the party, as it was made into what could be seen as the only "true opposition," and the party was able to bolster its claims that the Belgian political establishment sought to suppress calls for more Flemish autonomy and deny the Flemish voters a voice in national affairs.

[32] The agreement was renewed in following years,[28] and Vlaams Blok chairman Karel Dillen was used to call it the "insurance policy" of his party;[33] "I was basically very happy with its existence.

[25] The plan sought to close the borders towards non-European immigrants, gradually repatriate those already in the country, and implement an "own people first" principle in all policy areas.

[38] In 1996, party leader Karel Dillen, who had been nominated to hold his position for life, stepped down and personally appointed Frank Vanhecke as his successor.

The Vlaams Blok also benefitted from the further collapse of the People's Union, which was brought on by the VU's more national conservative members becoming disgruntled with the centre-left faction who had taken control of its leadership.

[6] In October 2000, the Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism, together with the Dutch-speaking Human Rights League in Belgium registered a complaint at the Correctional Court, in which they claimed that three non-profit organisations connected to the Vlaams Blok (its education and research office and the "National Broadcasting Corporation") had violated the 1981 anti-racism law.

The Vlaams Blok lodged an appeal which was rejected, and in November 2004, the ruling was made definite, when it was upheld by the Court of Cassation.

)[32] The new party instituted a number of changes in its political program, carefully moderating some of the more extreme positions of the former Vlaams Blok.

"[53] The main ideological and political strategies of the Vlaams Blok started out with its radical nationalist rejection of the People's Union compromise on the Flemish autonomy issue, later to be followed by focus on immigration and security, exploitation of corruption and other scandals, and defense of traditional values.

[54] The Flemish nationalism promoted by the party (volksnationalisme) was according to its program "based on the ethnic community being a naturally occurring entity whose cultural, material, ethical and intellectual interests need to be preserved.

From the 1990s however, the latter idea was downplayed by the party, as the Netherlands then turned into a "permissive, multicultural and social-democratic state" according to one scholar (although this Dutch political situation would be sharply overturned in the 2000s).

Party founder Karel Dillen called for "the return of the vast majority of non-European guest workers to their own homeland" and argued for this to happen "within a reasonable period."

[26] Concerns about crime and security was also linked to immigration, as the party particularly blamed Turks and Moroccans for various criminal activity, and sought a zero tolerance approach regarding law and order.

[26] The party was also strongly anti-Islamic from early on, and in its 1993 program regarded Islam as "a doctrine, which preaches holy war, assassination, forced conversions, oppression of women, slavery and extermination of "infidels", [which] will automatically lead to what we now call fundamentalism.

"[57] The party was anti-Muslim[58][59] and portrayed Muslims as fifth column of a cruel and expansionist religion, and after the 1990 Gulf War called on the government to introduce measures to keep Belgium from being Islamised.

[57] Academic Hans-Georg Betz has described Vlaams Blok as one of the first radical European populist parties to pursue and gain support through an anti-Islamic agenda.

[61] When Roeland Raes cast doubt on the scale of the Holocaust in a television interview in 2001 for instance, the party leadership immediately called an emergency meeting, distanced itself from him and forced him to resign.

It rejected the view of any international consensus about concepts as democracy, justice, freedom and human rights, especially since most of its member countries are non-Western and undemocratic.