Filip Dewinter’s New Year’s Speech in Antwerp

Our Flemish correspondent VH has translated a New Year’s Day speech from Filip Dewinter’s website. It’s a real rip-snorter of a piece, and recommended reading.


Speech at the New Year’s reception in Antwerp

by Filip Dewinter
Chairman of the Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) Party in Antwerp

Dear Friends,

On the skating rink at the Grote Markt in Antwerp it is not permitted, but here it is. So tonight by way of introduction, Sick Leave Cash by The Strangers}, by special request from non-politically correct Antwerp!

Dear Friends,

Antwerp is suffering from a peculiar and serious illness. The symptoms are well known: songs of The Strangers may no longer be listened to, children on school trips are required to eat halal food and separate swimming hours for men and women are actually being introduced in the Antwerp public swimming pools, and the cross on the mitre of Sinterklaas [St. Nicholas] is prohibited.

Along with the disappearance of the cross on the mitre of Sinterklaas, the nativity scenes also had to go from under the Christmas trees in the local schools. And if certain Islamic organizations have their say, no more Easter eggs will be handed out at the town hall and even the Christmas decorations in the city will have to go because of their non-neutrality.

That Muslims raise such demands does not surprise me. A municipal authority in which the CD&V [Flemish Christian Democrats] and N-VA [New Flemish Alliance, a Liberal Conservative party] take part in it and allow all this to happen shocks me much more. That Patrick Janssens [SP.A., Socialist Progressive Party] reveals himself to be an Islam-collaborator who owes his votes and election victory to the tens of thousands of Muslims is something we knew longer ago than today. But the fact that a Christian Democrat like Philip Heylen [CD&V alderman of Antwerp] last year actually launched the proposal to close down [demolish] half of the churches in Antwerp and convert them into mosques is beyond any imagination!

Dear Friends,
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This is how far it has gone! Not only are we no longer masters in our own city and in our own country… we are now also expected — whether it is about the non-politically-correct song of The Strangers, or the banning of the cross on the mitre of Sinterklaas doesn’t really make a difference — to engage in self-censorship and revisionism. Revisionism indeed, because the exclusion of the cross on the mitre of Sinterklaas is no more and no less than historical distortion. Sinterklaas was later declared the holy Christian Bishop Nicholas of Myra, who lived in Turkey in the fourth century, which was then still part of the Roman Empire. It was no coincidence that in 1087 the remains of Nicholas were brought by Italian merchants from Myra to Italy, to protect them from the advancing Muslims. Europe then stretched from Oslo to Jerusalem and from the Baltic to the Mediterranean Sea. Istanbul was still called Constantinople then and the Hagia Sophia was still a Cathedral, and not a mosque. I do not intend to rewrite our European history, not even for 100 million Muslims on European soil.

Dear Friends,

A lot has changed in the meantime. Europe has become ill and weak. It is called multicultural, permissive, and tolerant according to the newspeak. We have become afraid of our own shadow. We hardly dare to defend our culture, our civilization, our values and standards, just because we are afraid of being called racist or Islamophobic. On News Year’s Day, for instance, an authorized AEL demonstration took place in the heart of Antwerp, in which hundreds of young Muslims left a trail of destruction through the city. “Jews out”, “Jihad, Hamas, Hezbollah” and “Osama, we need you,” was chanted. A few days later, Islamic hotheads were caught in possession of Molotov cocktails and other weapons. The sad culmination was the attempted arson of a house of a Jewish family.

Dear Friends,

I first and foremost have a message; a message to the Muslims living here and to [Antwerp Mayor] Patrick Janssens.

To all the Muslims and immigrants who find our country, our way of life, to be worth nothing, who during demonstrations wave slogans such as “Osama, we need you”, who burn flags of our allies and find our society decadent and reprehensible, who despise the equality between men and women and the separation between Church and State: I want to point out to them the fundamental right for everyone in this country and also in Europe, to leave. Indeed, if you do not like it in this country and in this city, depart and return to the your country of origin!

Dear Friends,

I also have a message to Patrick Janssens. If the Vlaams Belang in Antwerp for example protests against ritual slaughtering, or the undemocratic Belgian Royalty, than never estimate the risks wrongly. On December 8, in response to our demonstration with 200 people, a police water cannon and two platoons of police in combat uniform were standing prepared, together with a number of special arrest teams to keep this peaceful demonstration under control. If the AEL demonstrates a few hundred meters away from the Jewish Quarter, you find a few officers on a bicycle enough to accompany the demonstration…

It is as if would ask the gendarmes of Saint Tropez in the films of Louis de Funès to stop the Nazis, or assign Inspector Clouseau the task of grabbing Osama Bin Laden!

Dear Friends,

Meanwhile, Patrick Janssens looks the other way and assigns all responsibility to the police force “who wrongly estimated the risks”. But we all know better! Janssens follows a policy of double standards. He pampers the Muslim immigrants and looks down on our own people. He is selling out Antwerp to Islam. He surrenders our city to Arab aliens who are already waving the green flag of Islamic fascism in the shadow of the cathedral!

Dear Friends,

This is not only about a strict and firm police performance; on whether or not to allow a demonstration; on the right to demonstrate in general and the freedom of expression in particular.

Dear Friends,

Patrick Janssens would do better serve an apprenticeship with his Socialist friends of the Dutch PvdA [Labor Party]. In a recent paper on the integration of foreigners, the Dutch Socialists admit their guilt. I quote: “Tolerance slowed down the integration in the Netherlands, so we now opt for confrontation. The mistake we should never make again is to swallow criticism of culture or religion out of tolerance. Integration has long been an ideal of tolerance and all would turn out to be fine. In practice this tolerance meant looking away from real problems. The stage of avoidance is now over. Politics has neglected for too long the feelings of loss and alienation that native Dutch experience with this parallel society of immigrants.” In the Netherlands, Theo van Gogh and Pim Fortuyn had to die as martyrs before the Socialists understood what it was all about. How far should it go until the left in Antwerp and in Flanders also understand what it is really all about? If Janssens in the name of tolerance tolerates “Jews Out” in Antwerp, we only have one answer: “Janssens Out!”

Dear Friends,

Janssens harvest what he sowed. The AEL has applied for a new permit for a demonstration this Saturday. It is no longer about the fate Palestinians in the Gaza Strip anymore, nor the military actions against Hamas! Radical organizations such as AEL see how far they can go; how the government responds, or should I say: does not respond. The heads are counted; the power balance is tested out. For my part the AEL may demonstrate at the Rode Weelweg close by the Hooge Maey [Landfill for garbage from Antwerp and other cities in the vicinity] where they belong, 15 km from here in “the middle of nowhere”! But no more demonstrations in Antwerp, nor in Borgerhout, nor on the Astridplein, nor on the Turnhoutsebaan! Keep the AEL out of Antwerp.

Dear Friends,

It is now five to twelve! We have no more time to lose! Half-hearted solutions have long since ceased to do any good! He who now hides his head in the sand is an accessory to the Islamization of our city! We must dare to send a strong signal!

This means that we must dare to enter into resistance, because our city is in distress. In distress, Antwerp residents know who their friends are, and namely us — the Vlaams Belang — out of necessity!