BELGIUM: Belgium's right-wing Flemish nationalist Vlaams Blok party has dissolved itself and changed its name as part of a broad "make-over" to increase its appeal after the country's chief appeals court ruled it racist last week.
The Blok, which espoused anti-immigrant views and sought independence for Flanders, has now adopted a new declaration of principles and will be reborn under the name Vlaams Belang, or Flemish Interest.
The Blok was the Dutch-speaking region's biggest party in terms of parliamentary seats after winning 24 per cent of the vote in regional elections last June, but it was locked out of local and regional government by a so-called cordon sanitaire, under which all mainstream parties refused to deal with it.
A court ruled in April that three associations set up to finance and train Blok officials had breached anti-racism laws by supporting an organisation engaged in ethnic or racial discrimination. Surveys show the Blok was able to capitalise on a sympathy vote during the elections.
Faced with the likelihood of losing crucial state funding and being banned from the media, the party filed an appeal.
The Supreme Court of Appeals upheld the ruling on Tuesday, saying freedom of speech could be curbed in a democracy to protect the rights of others or safeguard national security and public order.
Analysts said the ruling could boost support for the party by forcing it to modernise and transform itself into a mainstream right-wing movement.However mainstream Belgian political parties insist a purely cosmetic change would not be sufficient to allow the Blok to break out of its isolation.
Only a major victory at local elections in 2006 could offer the anti-immigrant Flemish nationalist group a quicker route to power, as local politicians would be more willing to form coalitions with the Vlaams Blok, experts say.
Mr Johan Ackaert, a political scientist at Limburg University, told De Morgen daily that changing the party's skin could give some mainstream politicians an alibi to enter into talks with it.
Mr Kris Deschouwer, a political scientist at the Free University of Brussels, said: "You can deradicalise a party by forcing it to make compromises and that is exactly what happened in Austria and what is happening in Switzerland, Norway, Denmark."
Vlaams Blok president Mr Frank van Hecke said the change in the party's name could turn the court ruling into a Pyrrhic victory for its opponents. "We will establish a new party," Mr van Hecke said. "This one, Belgium will not be able to bury, it will bury Belgium."
The party's co-leader, Mr Filip Dewinter, said: "The Vlaams Blok is dead, long live the Vlaams Blok because we will go on in a new outfit with a new name."
Mr Pascal Dewitt, also a political scientist at Brussels Free University, said the verdict allowed the party to change its statutes and its name more easily.
Commentators say the party runs a risk if it moderates its message or becomes more "respectable". "The Vlaams Blok is attractive in its indecency," a Belgian financial daily De Tijd said in an editorial. "The Vlaams Belang runs the risk of becoming decent but not attractive."
The Flemish Liberals and Christian Democrats - under pressure from their right-wing factions to give up the cordon sanitaire - say they could review their position if the Vlaams Blok was showing a "real willingness to join democracy".