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24-799: The highest electoral achievement of the Rexist Party was 21 out of 202 deputies (with 11.4% of the vote) and twelve senators in the 1936 election . Never a mass movement, it was on the decline by 1938. During the German occupation of Belgium in World War II , Rex was the most significant collaborationist group in French-speaking Belgium, paralleled by the Vlaamsch Nationaal Verbond (VNV) in Flanders. By

48-601: A "danger to the church and the country". The ideology of Rex, which was loosely based on the writings of Jean Denis , called for the "moral renewal" of Belgian society through the dominance of the Catholic Church by forming a corporatist society and abolishing liberal democracy . Denis became an enthusiastic member of Rex, and later wrote for the party newspaper Le Pays Réel . The original programme of Rexism borrowed strongly from Charles Maurras ' integralism . It rejected liberalism , which it deemed decadent, and

72-660: A German dialect alongside of Walloon spoken elsewhere in the province. The province was separated from the grand-duchy by the Third Partition of Luxembourg , in 1830–31 by the Conference of London dealing with the consequences of the Belgian Revolution of 1830. In 1839, after William I , King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg , agreed to the terms of the partition and the province

96-555: A by-election in April 1937 did it openly embrace anti-Semitism and anti-parliamentarianism, following the model of German Nazism . Historian Roger Griffin in “The Nature of Fascism” states that the Rexist Party during the German occupation of Belgium as "fully fascist"; until then, he considers it " proto-fascist ". The Rexist movement attracted support almost exclusively from Wallonia. On 6 October 1936, party leader Léon Degrelle made

120-1010: A minor role during the war) was imprisoned. Degrelle took refuge in Francoist Spain . He was convicted of treason in absentia in Belgium and sentenced to death , but repeated requests to extradite him were turned down by the Spanish government. Stripped of his citizenship and excommunicated (later lifted in Germany), Degrelle died in Málaga in 1994. [REDACTED] Media related to Rexist Party at Wikimedia Commons 1936 Belgian general election van Zeeland I National Unity ( Catholic - Lab - Lib ) van Zeeland II National Unity ( Catholic - Lab - Lib ) General elections were held in Belgium on 24 May 1936. The result

144-768: A secret agreement with Rex's Flemish counterpart, the Vlaams Nationaal Verbond (VNV; "Flemish National Union") led by Staf De Clercq . Both movements strove for a corporatist system. Still, unlike the Rexists, the VNV sought to separate Flanders from Belgium and to unite it with the Netherlands . The Flemish side cancelled the agreement after just one year. It also faced competition from the ideologically similar (but explicitly anti-German) Légion Nationale ("National Legion") of Paul Hoornaert . The Rexist Party

168-643: Is the southernmost province of Wallonia within Belgium . It borders the country of Luxembourg to the east, the French departments of Ardennes , Meuse and Meurthe-et-Moselle to the south and southwest, and the Walloon provinces of Namur and Liège to the north. Its capital and largest city is Arlon , in the south-east of the province, near the border of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg . It has an area of 4,459 km (1,722 sq mi), making it

192-645: The Waffen-SS raised from French-speaking volunteers in Belgium with Rexist support after German invasion of the Soviet Union . After an initial failure to attract recruits, Degrelle volunteered for the unit as a publicity stunt and spent much of the rest of the war outside Belgium on the Eastern Front . He increasingly saw the Walloon Legion as a better vehicle for seeking German support than

216-591: The Catholic Party, who was supported — in the hope of thwarting a Rexist victory — by all other parties, including even the Communists. The Archbishop of Mechelen and primate of the Catholic Church of Belgium, Jozef-Ernest Cardinal van Roey , intervened, rebuking Rexist voters, insisting that even abstention from voting would be sinful, and calling Rexism "a danger to the country and to the Church". Degrelle

240-465: The Rexist Party, and recruitment drained the party of its cadres . Whilst Degrelle was absent, nominal leadership of the party passed to Victor Matthys . The Rexists had their paramilitary wing known as the Formations de Combat ( lit.   ' Combat Formations ' ), founded in 1940 and having around 4,000 members. Their members wore dark blue uniforms with the red Burgundian cross . Due to

264-558: The constant depletion of its strength through members volunteering for more active forms of service in the German forces, the Formations had, by the end of 1943, virtually ceased to function. The party had been banned from the liberation of Belgium in September 1944. With the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945, many former Rexists were imprisoned or executed for their role during collaboration. Victor Matthys and José Streel were both executed by firing squad, Jean Denis (who had played only

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288-768: The electoral districts of the Chamber of Representatives was as follows. Several arrondissements got one or more additional seats. Roeselare-Tielt lost one seat, which was a rare occurrence since population generally increased throughout the Belgian territory with each census. Luxembourg (province) Luxembourg ( French : Luxembourg [lyksɑ̃buʁ] ; Dutch : Luxemburg [ˈlyksəmˌbʏr(ə)x] ; German : Luxemburg [ˈlʊksm̩bʊʁk] ; Luxembourgish : Lëtzebuerg [ˈlətsəbuəɕ] ; Walloon : Lussimbork ), also called Belgian Luxembourg or West Luxembourg ,

312-443: The largest Belgian province. With around 295,000 residents as of January 2024, Luxembourg is also the least populated province, with a density of 64/km (170/sq mi), making it a relatively sparsely settled part of a very densely populated region, as well as the lowest density in Belgium. It is significantly larger (71%) than, but has less than half the population of, the neighbouring Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. About eighty percent of

336-532: The mainstream Catholic and Liberal parties . With the German invasion of Belgium in 1940, Rexism welcomed German occupation, even though it had initially supported the pre-war Belgian policy of neutrality. While some former Rexists went into the underground resistance or (like José Streel ) withdrew from politics after they had come to see the Nazis' anticlerical and extreme anti-Semitic policies enforced in occupied Belgium, most Rexists, however, proudly supported

360-677: The occupiers and assisted German forces with the repression of the territory wherever they could. Nevertheless, the popularity of Rex continued to drop. In 1941, at a reunion in Liège , Degrelle was booed by about a hundred demonstrators. In August 1944, a Rexist militia was responsible for the Courcelles Massacre . Closely affiliated with Rex was the Walloon Legion , a unit within the German Army ( Wehrmacht ) and later

384-404: The province is part of the densely wooded Ardennes region. The southernmost region of the province is called Gaume or Belgian Lorraine (main city: Virton ). The Arelerland , the region around Arlon (coloured red on the map of arrondissements, below) bordering the neighbouring Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg has the particularity that many of its residents have historically spoken Luxembourgish ,

408-526: The total vote in the 1936 election . On that occasion the Rexist Party took 21 of the 202 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 8 out of 101 in the Senate, making it the fourth-strongest force in Parliament, behind the significant established parties (Labour, Catholic, Liberal). However, the support for the party (even at its height) was extremely localized: Rexists succeeded in garnering over 30 per cent of

432-586: The vote in the French-speaking province of Luxembourg , compared with just 9 per cent in equally French-speaking Hainaut. Degrelle admired Adolf Hitler 's rise to power and progressively imitated the tone and style of fascist campaigning, while the movement's ties to the Roman Catholic Church were increasingly repudiated by the Belgian clergy. Degrelle ran in the April 1937 Brussels by-election against Prime Minister Paul van Zeeland of

456-548: The war's end, Rex was widely discredited and banned following the liberation. Initially modelled on Italian Fascism and Spanish Falangism , it later drew closer to German Nazism . The Party espoused a "right-wing revolution" and the dominance of the Catholic Church in Belgium , but its ideology came to be vigorously opposed by the leader of the Belgian Church Cardinal van Roey , who called Rexism

480-605: Was a victory for the Belgian Labour Party , which won 70 of the 202 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 39 of the 101 seats in the Senate . Voter turnout was 94.7%. Despite the rise of far-right and far-left parties, Paul van Zeeland continued as Prime Minister leading a government of national unity, composed of the three major parties (Catholics, Socialists and Liberals). The distribution of seats among

504-429: Was decisively defeated: he obtained only 20 per cent of the vote, the rest going to Van Zeeland. Afterwards, Rexism allied itself with the interests of Nazi Germany even more strongly and incorporated Nazi -style antisemitism into its platform. At the same time, its popularity declined sharply. In the 1939 national election , Rex's share of votes fell to 4.4 per cent, and the party lost 17 of its 21 seats, largely to

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528-471: Was founded in 1935 after its leader Léon Degrelle had left the mainstream Catholic Party , which he deemed too moderate. It targeted disappointed constituencies such as traditionalist Catholics, veterans, small traders and jobless people. In the Depression era, it initially won considerable popularity — mostly due to its leader's charisma and energy. Its most tremendous success was winning 11.5 per cent of

552-427: Was given to the newly created Kingdom of Belgium. An unofficial flag of the province exists, with the current colours of Luxembourg (red, white, and blue), as well as the province's coat of arms on the foreground. Luxembourg province is divided into five administrative districts ( French : arrondissements ) containing a total of 44 municipalities ( French : communes ). The gross domestic product (GDP) of

576-596: Was strongly opposed to both Marxism and capitalism , instead striving for a corporatist economic model, idealising rural life and traditional family values . It has been claimed that in its early period until around 1937, Rexism should not be categorised as a ‘fascist movement’, and that it was instead a populist , authoritarian and conservative Catholic nationalist movement that initially tried to win power by democratic means, and did not want to totally abolish democratic institutions. The party increasingly made use of fascist-style rhetoric, but only after Degrelle's defeat in

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