New Fire On The Yser

1,647 words

The Low Countries (“The Netherlands”) is the name given to the area comprising the present-day states of The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. The language spoken in this area is largely Dutch, but in the south there is a strong and expanding influence of French. Belgium is divided into a Dutch-speaking and a French-speaking area, whose inhabitants are referred to as “Flemish” and “Walloons” respectively. On the initiative of France, in 1830 Belgium seceded from the newly created Kingdom of the Netherlands. Immediately it started discriminating against Dutch speakers and tried to impose French everywhere. However, this met with increasing resistance, which radicalised during the “storm of steel” of the Great War. Whereas the Flemish had initially asked politely, with their hats in their hands, for their discrimination in Belgium to be remedied, they now wanted to free themselves from a state that was a prison for them. They became “dangerous to the state.”

To commemorate and celebrate the origins of this radical Flemish nationalist movement, thousands of Flemish nationalists have gathered at a large annual event for more than a century, the so-called IJzertreffen (Meeting at the Yser). Many Dutch and delegations from other nationalist resistance movements, such as the Bretons and Scots, also take part in this event. The location of the commemoration is a monument on the plain near the River Yser, where the Belgian army fought a fierce battle with the invading German troops during the Great War. Two Flemish brothers were killed there and died in each other’s arms, but contrary to the customs of war, their Walloon officer did not allow their remains to be collected during a lull in the fighting. The format of the commemoration had remained unchanged for many years: on Sunday morning, Holy Mass was celebrated, followed by speeches and a flag parade by Flemish nationalist groups. It was a fine programme, but also a little sparse when we consider that visitors often had to travel for hours to reach the remote area on the Yser. For more about the history of the event, see here.

In recent years, the number of participants has gradually declined, while the average age has risen.

Three years ago, the organisation therefore decided to organise a music festival on Saturday evening, called Frontnacht (A night at the front). This was sabotaged by the municipal council, which withdrew the permit for the festival at the very last minute in order to cause organisational and financial difficulties for the organisation. Two years later, the Council of State ruled that the municipal council had acted unlawfully, but that was far too late, of course. This year, however, the rejuvenation of the IJzerwake was very successful. The programme was significantly expanded and now began on Saturday, August 23. Saturday afternoon, participants could choose between a brisk walk along historical sites on the Yser Front and traditional sports and games activities. In the evening, there were performances by celebrated Flemish protest singers and the singing of traditional songs of resistance from the Dutch and Flemish independence struggles. Participants spent the night at the campsite or a nearby hotel. On Sunday morning, there was the traditional Mass, followed by a speech and a panel discussion. There was also a kind of annual fair with stalls run by organisations and shops, performances by various music and folk dance groups, and demonstrations of traditional crafts such as blacksmithing and stonemasonry. At a real blacksmith’s, we could imagine the forging Siegfried’s sword Nothung in the red-hot fire. Indeed, at this Smisse Priem, the tradition of blacksmithing has been passed down from generation to generation in the family. Their motto is: Door vuer ende bloed! (Through fire and blood!).

The Holy Mass on Sunday morning was more modest in scale than in previous years. Instead of taking place on a large, professional – and very expensive – open-air concert stage, it was now held inside a big open tent. However, the more intimate atmosphere was very conducive to devotion, plus it protected the participants from the sun and rain. For me, the Mass was an important part of the event, even though my spirituality is more pagan in nature. Committing oneself to a great ideal seems almost impossible to me without a felt connection to the Sacred, however one experiences it. Apparently, most participants felt the same way, because when the tent was full, hundreds of people gathered outside around the tent.

This rejuvenation of the Yser meeting had a different character than the sabotaged attempt three years ago. At that time, the focus was mainly on more radical young people aged 14 to 30 with the music programming of Neofolk bands. Now the aim was to offer a “family-friendly weekend experience.” Given the large number of new families with often very young children, this formula seems to be catching on. Perhaps this event is also more constructive for the national movement as a whole in this way. The organization can therefore look to the future with confidence, also thanks to the wonderful promotional visual material and the enthusiastic promotion by the charismatic Dries van Langenhove (see his great and stirring speech at an American Renaissance conference here.

In my opinion however, the ideological approach of the Yser meeting requires some further reflection. First of all, there is the ambiguous origin of the commemoration. On the one hand, it calls for “God’s peace” and “No more war,” while on the other hand, it calls for militancy against the Walloons and the Belgian state they dominate: more a call for conflict rather than for brotherhood. However understandable this may be given the historical oppression of the Flemish, at this point in time I believe that reaching out to the Walloons is more appropriate. In the first place because Flanders has long since surpassed the French-speaking part of Belgium in terms of prosperity and development. This is also reflected in the enormous subsidies to Wallonia that the Belgian state extracts from the Flemish. Of course the Flemish are right to complain about this, but on the other hand, it is also an expression of the leading position that Flanders has now achieved. The so-called “transfers” are something of a luxury problem.

Moreover, while the threat of domination by French speakers has diminished considerably, an even much more serious threat of domination now looms. The Walloons belong more or less to the same tribe as the Flemish, and the differences are mainly cultural. In the past, many Dutch speakers in fact “emigrated” to the French cultural sphere. The recent enormous influx of foreigners belonging to radically different tribes is of a completely different order than the suffering that the Belgian state inflicted on the Flemish in the past. Certainly, the Dutch speakers were humiliated and forced to speak French, but they were not driven out of their neighbourhoods, their women were not raped and murdered en masse, they were not discriminated against and persecuted because of their race, their children were still allowed to resemble their parents, and the children were not robbed of their inheritance. The Belgian state is now inflicting all this suffering on both the Flemish and the Walloons. The state has become the enemy of the latter as well. It is therefore high time to reach out to Walloons of good will (surely there must be at least some well-meaning Walloons somewhere…?).

Such an outreach is sure to go against the grain, but the Flemish should not forget that their cultural situation is rather ambiguous. Flemish identity has been strongly shaped by the struggle against the oppression of Dutch speakers by the Belgian state, but on the other hand, the influence of the powerful French cultural sphere in Flanders has been undeniable ever since the Middle Ages. At the time, even in the Dutch-speaking areas, the ruling class spoke French, at least as a second language. In the 17th century the powerful Dutch Republic emerged in the north and established its own strong Protestant Dutch cultural circle, but the south, which remained Catholic and under the rule of the Habsburgs, did not join in. In fact, the Republic caused great hardship in the southern Netherlands by blocking its ports, while further south, the ever-expansive France was advancing. The Flemish people were caught between a rock and a hard place, under foreign rulers who also spoke French. It is actually a miracle that Dutch culture survived at all in the south.

This combination of resistance to, and influence by, the French cultural circle has given Flanders its own unique character. The relationship with its northern neighbor is also rather ambiguous, which is may be related to a certain sense of supremacy in the Protestant, dour North as its own strong cultural circle, which tends to looks down on—but also yearns for—the more relaxed, Catholic, and more life-loving South. It is said that the Dutch love the Flemish but don’t respect them, while the Flemish respect the Dutch but don’t love them.

All in all, it seems best to me if the Flemish would recognise that their relationship with the Walloons is not merely negative, but ambiguous. They may in fact recognise the Walloons as a constitutive element of their own identity, and that they are more or less “frenemies”. The struggle against the Walloons could then be downgraded to a folkloric element, at least for the duration of the struggle against the common mortal enemy, represented by the Belgian state and the EU. “Belgium” is the name of an unhappy marriage, but the spouses may not be able to do without each other entirely just yet. In any case, they should now put their problems aside until the invasion has been repelled. And what a wonderful sign of progress it will be when we hear again the familiar furious sound of breaking porcelain with which the spouses can once again pelt each other freely and carefree!