Death Or Rebirth?

Belgium's highest court ruled last week that the Flemish nationalist, anti-immigration Vlaams Blok — which took almost a quarter of the vote in the June regional elections in Flanders — is racist. The ruling could threaten the "Flemish Block's" receipt of official electoral funds, but the party is by no means scrambling for survival. Just days before the decision, party leaders had updated their 1977 founding statutes. "Before, the party advocated the expulsion of all non-European foreigners," Vlaams Blok co-leader Gerolf Annemans told the Flemish daily De Standaard. "Now foreigners can stay on the condition that they assimilate." Last weekend the...