Thread by @P_Kallioniemi

In todays #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a Belgian far-right politician and one of the key figures of the far right party Vlaams Belang, Filip Dewinter (@FDW_VB). He's best-known for his ultranationalism, and for promoting authoritarian regimes like Russia, the CCP and Syria.

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Dewinter's political ambitions started early, and at 16 he founded right-wing student organisation NSVJ. Its ultranationalistic tendencies drew the attention of newly formed political party Vlaams Blok, who recruited him at age 19 to become a member in 1981.

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Dewinter's political star rose as he helped launch Vlaams Blok into the orbit of relevant parties, gaining 10% of the votes in 1992 in Flanders. In 1995, he even became party leader and was soon seen as the embodiment of Flemish ultranationalism and xenophobia.

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Dewinter wasn't shy of using racist tones in his campaigns. He coined the slogan "Eigen Volk Eerst" ("Our People First"), a message later copied by many other populist individuals and parties whose rhetoric relies on anti-immigration policies.

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Filip's little party was even referred to in the political fiction series, The West Wing - Mentioning a party called "Flemish Block" having an election victory the president in the series states "The Flemish ultranationalists in Belgium. Skinheads really, neo-Nazis have won."5/17

Filip made connections with many European far-right parties, Russian Rodina among them. He teamed up with French conspiracy theorist Renaud Camus writing a book about "The Great Replacement" theory, a conspiracy that white christian life...

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...and culture are under threat due to mass immigration. Camus' ideas have been borrowed by the likes of Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, Thierry Baudet, Marie Le Pen, and even Elon Musk.

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The annexation of Crimea started Dewinter's big Russian period. He took part in the sham referendum as an election observer. Journalist Lindsey Hilsum bumbed into the "Flemish observers", who were apparently both extremely drunk & extremely late from their polling stations.

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In 2015, he stepped down as the party leader, and now had free reign to go abroad. After meeting Syria's brutal dictator, Bashar al-Assad, Dewinter had nothing but good things to say about the man: "I am impressed. We had talks for one hour, he’s a brave and impressive man."
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In 2015, Russia invited Dewinter over in the Duma to talk as a guest speaker. Filip even had time to take a selfie with his siloviki idol, Sergey Narishkin, who is one of Putin's most hawkish supporters.

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Ironically, during the same year Russia published a report on "extremist political parties in Europe", which branded Dewinter's Vlaams Belang as a party based on Hitler's Nazism. It looks like someone forgot to send a "they're actually the good guys" memo.

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Filip had proven his worth in Crimea so why not bring him in and observe another election, this time for the made-up republic of Donetsk? He even took some pictures with the invaders and the footage was shown later on RT.

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Dewinter was also of practical use to the Kremlin: he allegedly connected Arcadia - a Belgian company that produces drones, night vision goggles, 360 cameras, etc. for military purpose - with Russian officials.

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Just before Russia's full-scale invasion of 2022, Dewinter advocated Russia was an ally and Belgium should stay neutral in any conflict. Filip then showed a picture of him an Gregory Kuznetsov, a man who was later expelled as a Russian spy.

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In a hysterical turn of events, Dewinter was rebranded by the Russians as a "European nuclear expert". RIA Novosti reported that Filipo said there are "150 American tactical warheads in Turkey and Eastern Europe," which there of course aren't.

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He's also supported the "Chinese peace plan" for Ukraine and naturally blamed the US for the conflict, stating that they "like to milk this conflict as long as possible because it benefits their gas and weapons industries".

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Recently, Dewinter and his (former) associates have been connected to the CCP. Creyelman, one of Dewinter's associates and the drunk election observer of Crimea, was exposed as a spy who's working for the Xi Gang.

Maybe Dewinter jumped ship, too?

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This Belgian Endive soup was done in collaboration with NAFO activist SLAVAUA2022.

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https://twitter.com/P_Kallioniemi/status/1727001859846730089