The Order of Flemish Militants ( Dutch : Vlaamse Militanten Orde or VMO ) – originally the Flemish Militants Organisation ( Vlaamse Militanten Organisatie ) – was a Flemish nationalist activist group in Belgium defending far-right interests by propaganda and political action . Established in 1949, they helped found the People's Union ( Dutch : Volksunie or VU) in 1954, a Belgian political party. The links between the extremist VMO and the VU lessened as the party moved towards the centre . In later decades the VMO would become linked to neo-Nazism and a series of paramilitary attacks on immigrants and leftists before disappearing by the late 1980s.
21-561: VMO can refer to: Vlaamse Militanten Order (the Order of Flemish militants) Vastus medialis obliquus (a muscle) V MO , maximum operating speed of an aircraft, see V speeds VMO, designation of observation squadrons of the US Marine Corps 'Views my own' – a disclaimer Vanishing mean oscillation in mathematics Visiting Medical Officer (VMO) Topics referred to by
42-509: A rally, leaving one man dead, who suffered a heart attack, and several other severely injured. The VMO chairman Bob Maes decided to disband the VMO to protect the members from further prosecution. Soon after this, Maes was elected senator for the Volksunie and started defending more moderate points of view. Numerous members of the disbanded VMO did not support Maes' decision, and reconstituted
63-524: A response to the language laws of 1962 . The party had instant success in Brussels: it first contested parliamentary elections one year later , where it won one senator and 3 seats in the Chamber of Representatives for the constituency of Brussels . Its number of seats increased further in the subsequent parliamentary elections. The party also dominated Brussels' municipal politics until 1982. Initially
84-534: A subsequent volte-face the VMO threw its lot in with Ulster loyalism and attempted to link up with the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). This came to nothing either however after the UVF rejected the VMO's request that they should target Jews , with the UVF a pro-Israeli group in opposition to the pro- Palestine stance of republicans. In the seventies, VMO gained international attention by repatriating
105-422: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Order of Flemish militants In the years following the end of World War II , Flemish nationalists often fell victim in anti-Nazi rallies, manifestations and riots because of their anti-Belgicism and because the entire Flemish movement was discredited by military, political and economic collaboration with
126-594: The Odal Group and Voorpost . Democratic Front of Francophones DéFI ( French pronunciation: [defi] ; a backronym of Démocrate fédéraliste indépendant [demɔkʁat fedeʁalist ɛ̃depɑ̃dɑ̃] ) is a social-liberal and regionalist political party in Belgium mainly known for defending French-speakers' interests in and near the Brussels region. Founded in 1964,
147-549: The Antwerp Court to imprisonment although their sentences were overturned the following year on appeal. In 1983, the VMO was condemned as a private militia by the Ghent Court of Appeal and outlawed. Despite this verdict, the VMO was considered to be active and operational until the late eighties, when several similar organizations were founded to replace the VMO. The two most successful of these VMO successors are
168-562: The Wehrsportsgruppe , exchanging members for drilling exercises. In 1974 it announced that it intended to take on an active role against leftists as well as its pro-Flemish independence agenda. When the far right Vlaams Blok was established in 1979, several VMO members also joined that party. Chief among these was Xavier Buisseret, who served as propaganda chief of the Vlaams Blok , having previously held high office in
189-580: The Germans during World War II. The only outlets for organised Flemish nationalism were charitable groups dedicated to war veteran care or local branches of the dominant Christian Social Party ( Christelijke Volkspartij , CVV) which, whilst not avowedly nationalist, did have a significant separatist wing. The VMO was founded in 1949 by Bob Maes ; it was part of a wave of Flemish nationalist groups that emerged that year, including Flemish Concentration [ nl ] ( Vlaamse Concentratie , VC). VMO
210-417: The VMO on 12 June 1971 as "Vlaamse Militanten Orde", referring to the " Dinaso Militanten Orde ". Several Flemish extremists, radicals, neo-fascists and racists were among the founding members, including the former Hitler Youth member Bert Eriksson , who emerged as leader of the new group. It undertook drilling exercises and paramilitary "fieldgames" and also co-operated with similar militia groups such as
231-626: The VMO. The new VMO became associated with a series of attacks on immigrants, Walloons and leftists as well as the organisation of annual international neo-Nazi rallies at Diksmuide , where representatives of the League of Saint George and the National States' Rights Party were amongst those in attendance. These rallies had initially been for Flemish only but in the late 1960s the VMO began to invite other rightist groups to participate and they eventually became an important annual event in
SECTION 10
#1732775382353252-730: The corpses of former collaborators of World War Two to their homeland. In Austria, a VMO commando ( Operation Brevier ) claimed to have dug up the corpse of the priest Cyriel Verschaeve , a leading figure of the collaboration, and buried it again in Flemish soil. The dead bodies of Staf De Clercq , the former leader of the Vlaams Nationaal Verbond ( Operation Delta ), and Anton Mussert , the former Dutch NSB leader ( Operation Wolfsangel ), were also dug up and reburied in Flanders. In 1981, 106 VMO members were sentenced by
273-602: The extension of the bilingual status of Brussels to some municipalities in the Brussels Periphery (in Flemish Brabant , Flemish Region ), where a majority of the population is French-speaking, but the official language is Dutch , and pushes for the rights of French-speakers in Flemish municipalities to use French instead of Dutch in dealing with Dutch-speaking officials. Both stances are opposed by Flemish parties, who say that French-speaking residents of
294-800: The international neo-Nazi calendar. Especially close to the League of Saint George, the two groups were part of a wider network that also included the Deutsche Bürgerinitiative in Germany, the NSDAP/AO in the United States and France's Fédération d'action nationale et européenne . The group also sought, albeit unsuccessfully, to forge links with Irish republican groups and to this end distributed leaflets in support of Bobby Sands during his 1981 hunger strike . However, in
315-767: The party cooperated with the Walloon Rally . From 1977 until 1980, the FDF participated in the federal governments led by Leo Tindemans and subsequently Wilfried Martens . From 1992, the FDF regularly competed in electoral alliance with the larger Liberal Reformist Party (PRL). In 2002 the PRL, the FDF, the MCC and the PFF formed the Reformist Movement (MR), a closer alliance of Francophone liberal parties. In January 2010
336-601: The party is led by Sophie Rohonyi , a former member of the Chamber of Representatives . The party's current name, DéFI or Défi , was adopted in 2016 and is a backronym of Démocrate, Fédéraliste, Indépendant (literally, "Democratic, Federalist, Independent") meaning "challenge" in French . The party was founded as the Democratic Front of Francophones ( Front Démocratique des Francophones , FDF) on 11 May 1964 as
357-610: The party name was amended to Francophone Democratic Federalists ( Fédéralistes Démocrates Francophones ), maintaining its original acronym. In September 2011, the FDF decided to leave the alliance over disagreements with MR president Charles Michel on the agreement concerning the splitting of the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde district during the 2010–2011 Belgian government formation . The party adopted its current name, DéFI, in November 2015. The party advocates
378-577: The possession of forbidden weapons earlier that year. The VMO itself was not convicted (since it was impossible at that time to prosecute a group on penal grounds, only individuals). In 1954 the VMO became associated with the Christian Flemish People's Union ( Christelijke Vlaamse Volksunie , CVV) and the more formal alliance of the People's Union ( Volksunie , VU) that followed this group that same year. The VMO soon took over much of
399-601: The propaganda and stewarding work for the VU although relations between the two groups became increasingly strained as the VU moved further towards a centrist position and the VMO hardened its rightist attitudes. A formal schism between the two organisations was announced in October 1963. On 14 June 1970, a trial against the VMO was initiated after violent clashes with supporters of the Democratic Front of Francophones at
420-403: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title VMO . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=VMO&oldid=1236473201 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
441-503: Was in fact initially established as a steward group for the VC. The group sought the creation of an independent Flanders . Soon, the VMO started expanding and turned into a full-scale paramilitary organization. Between 1950 and 1970 it was heavily criticized by, but nevertheless tolerated by, the Ministry of Justice . On 14 December 1953, however, 16 individual VMO members were convicted for
SECTION 20
#1732775382353#352647