Flanders' two separatist parties – rightwing N-VA and far-right Vlaams Belang – have seemingly been trying to one-up each other with so-called "anti-woke" discourse, which has now come to a head following the appointment of author Dalilla Hermans for a cultural function in the city of Bruges.
N-VA president Bart De Wever laid out his criticism of so-called "wokeism" in his new book – titled 'Over woke' ("About woke" in Dutch). In March, a fellow N-VA Antwerp city councillor insisted on the removal of four photos by renowned photographer Mous Lamrabat, which had been installed in the stairwell of the iconic Arenberg Theater.
Now it is the turn of Vlaams Belang (prominent Flemish nationalist party) to go on the "anti-woke" offensive, this time the fuss concerns the picturesque city of Bruges after Hermans – an author and columnist – was selected by the city administration to coordinate a programme promote Bruges for the Cultural Capital of Europe in 2030.
Her appointment was met with racist abuse towards Hermans, a black woman, with particularly hateful comments published in comments on a Facebook post by Mayor Dirk De fauw. De fauw subsequently told De Standaard: "Bruges is an open, broad-minded and tolerant city. I want to do everything I can to keep it that way. Some comments are the purest form of racism and are therefore punishable."
Yet rather than acknowledge the blatant racist abuse, Vlaams Belang sought to frame the debacle as "woke extremism and anti-white racism." Party MEP Tom Vandendriessche and Bruges city councillor Stefaan Sintobin entered the fray on social media, the former commenting under De fauw's Facebook post that Bruges is "joining with woke extremism." Vandendriessche's comment sparked a further slew of racist and discriminatory reactions.
"This is clearly an orchestrated campaign from Vlaams Belang," said De fauw. "Only later did a spontaneous stream of statements of support follow. I do not want to continue the polemic now; Dalilla came out of the procedure as the best candidate. We are unwaveringly behind her appointment and I am sure she will do an excellent job.”
The Bruges city councillor for culture Nico Blontrock also defended the appointment: "We have appointed Hermans for what she can do and has already proven in the cultural world. Why are they contesting her appointment? I can only see one reason and it is too nasty to utter. I have read some of the dirtiest comments online. You cannot begin to take racist comments into account, can you?"
'Woke gone too far'
On Instagram, Hermans responded to the hate messages she received, saying that it is "still shocking when people throw such cruel, mean, racist things at you," but added that this gives her an extra push.
In an interview with De Standaard last weekend, MP for N-VA Maaike De Vreese supported the framing by Vlaams Belang, insisting that appointing Hermans would be a sign of "woke gone too far in Bruges."
In Belgium, it is quite unheard of for politicians to interfere so much with the appointment of someone in the administration of one city. It is also surprising that De Vreese thought it necessary to enter the argument alongside Vlaams Belang – a non-governing party that leans considerably further to the political right.
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Bruges mayor De fauw noted that some people within the N-VA "are very closely aligned with Vlaams Belang" but contested whether this kind of personal attack can be attributed to De Wever's anti-woke discourse: "I work well with Bart De Wever as mayor and I am sure he will not agree with this."
While De fauw described the Facebook comments as the purest form of racism (adding that they are punishable by law), he has yet to file a complaint or remove them from his page. "We will investigate this and discuss with the attorney whether he would follow up on this. I do not feel like starting a procedure that will be dropped anyway."
