A recent manhunt for an armed Belgian military officer, who had threatened a prominent health expert and was suspected of preparing an attack against a mosque, revealed much about the rise of the radical Right in Belgium.
The soldier, who was deployed in operations in Afghanistan several times between 2011 and 2017, was finally found dead last month, after weeks on the run. In just a few days, a Facebook group supporting the man gathered more than 50,000 members before being deleted by the social network. One of the slogans on the page was: “The one who dares to say out loud what we think”.
Extreme Right discourses are on the rise in Belgium, especially in the Flemish-speaking part of the country, where the region’s extreme Right political party, Vlaams Belang, represents about 20% of votes.
