Quotes of the Day

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 party was slated to meet again to dissolve itself and start over with the same crew but a new name.

The court ruling may thus turn out to be a pyrrhic victory for the party's opponents. "In the short term, the Vlaams Blok will profit from this conviction," says Carl Devos, a political scientist at Ghent University. "It gives them an excellent excuse to abandon more radical positions, then play the underdog to the voters by saying, 'We've been convicted for saying what you think.'" Such a makeover could help the party to solidify its support — without any real change in its odious message.

• JAMES GRAFF
• Nationalist Flemish party re-invents itself