Union of Dutch National Solidarists Verbond van Dietsche Nationaal-Solidaristen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Joris Van Severen |
| Founded | 6 October 1931; 94 years ago (1931-10-06) |
| Dissolved | 10 May 1941; 84 years ago (1941-05-10) |
| Merged into | Eenheidsbeweging-VNV [nl] |
| Headquarters | Izegem,West Flanders |
| Youth wing | Jong Dinaso |
| Women's wing | Verdivro |
| Paramilitary wing | Dinaso Militanten Orde |
| Ideology | National Solidarism[1] |
| Political position | Far-right |
| Slogan | "Dietschland en Orde" (lit. 'Dietschland and Order') |
| Party flag | |
 | |
Verdinaso (Verbond vanDietscheNationaal-Solidaristen,lit. 'Union of Dutch National Solidarists'[8]), sometimes rendered asDinaso,[9] was a smallfascistpolitical movement active inBelgium and, to a lesser extent, theNetherlands between 1931 and 1941.
Verdinaso was founded byJoris Van Severen,Jef François,Wies Moens, andEmiel Thiers on 6 October 1931 at a meeting in the Hôtel Richelieu inGhent. It emerged from theFlemish Movement although, under Van Severen's leadership, it moved towards a novelauthoritarian political ideology, which he referred to as National Solidarism. The organisation had initially called for the reunification ofFlanders with theNetherlands in aGreater Netherlands (Dietschland) but discarded this ideal in 1934 in favour of a broadercorporatist ideology calling for the establishment of a federated authoritarian polity on the model of theBurgundian Netherlands which would incorporate the whole of Belgium and possiblyLuxembourg.[10] The party remained small but succeeded in attracting several young students and intellectuals inspired byItalian Fascism andPortugal'sEstado Novo. It established aparamilitary wing in 1937, identified by its members' green shirts, known as the Dinaso Militant Order (Dinaso Militanten Orde).
Although Verdinaso never gained a mass following, its role in diminishing support for the establishedFlemish Front (Vlaamsche Front) at the1929 elections led to the latter's decision to substantially reorganise itself in 1931 into theFlemish National League (Vlaamsch Nationaal Verbond) and to shift its ideological mainstream away from democratic reform andpacificism towards right-wing authoritarianism.[11]
The party was against theparliamentary democracy and eventually advocated acorporative society ruled by theBelgian King. As such it never participated in elections and never became a potent political pressure group.
The Verdinaso initially advocated Flemish and Dutchnationalism. It proposed the union ofFlanders with the Netherlands to form aDietsland orDiets Rijk ("Dietsch Empire"), justifying this based on a shared history of the two lands under theBurgundians, and the emblematic rule ofCharles I. In 1932, two of its leaders, François and Van Severen, were elected to theChamber of Deputies; the same year, the party was joined byVictor Leemans, who wrote the workHet nationaal-socialisme, an apology forNational Socialism.
After 1934, Verdinaso shifted its focus towards aBelgian identity circa 1939, becoming a bilingual (French-Dutch) movement, believing that the Belgian state should be founded onRoman Catholic corporatism – an economic model interpreted by Verdinaso from theCatholic social teaching, and akin toIntegralism and theAction Française (an influence on Van Severen). Influential members, like Wies Moens, left the organization over what they viewed as treason to Dutch nationalism and a shift towards belgicism.[12] The party virulently opposedCommunism on theleft andliberalcapitalism on theright; it was also somewhatantisemitic, occasionally venting the opinion thatJews, as well asFreemasons constituted a hidden power working against the interests ofDietsland. The movement also shifted from proposing a union between Flanders and the Netherlands toone between Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.
In the1936 Belgian general election, Verdinaso ran on a joint list with other Flemish nationalists called theVlaamsch Nationaal Verbond (VNV; "Flemish National Union"). VNV got 7.1% of the vote and 16 seats. In the1939 Belgian general election, VNV peaked at 8.3% of the vote and 17 seats. TheDinaso Militanten Orde had around 3,000 members, grouped under the leadership of François, and published the newspapersRecht en Trouw andDe Vlag (placed under the leadership of Moens).
WhenWorld War II broke out Van Severen was killed inAbbeville,France, suspected of being an agent ofNazi Germany, and as part of some executions ofRexists and Belgian Communists (both groups were suspected of pro-German activism, justified by theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact in the case of the latter). As a consequence, Verdinaso lost clear direction (despite Van Severen's replacement by François), and was eventually absorbed into the VNV in May 1941. Some Verdinaso members, who advocated a strong Belgianauthoritarian regime around KingLeopold III, however, joined the resistance against the German occupation.[13]
Verdinaso was based around the ideology of "National-Solidarism", which was a social doctrine that was firmlyanti-Marxist andanti-capitalist. The party wished to reform society in anorganic sense, that is to say, growing gradually, naturally, with respect for its nature, history and tradition. Verdinaso opposed both liberalism and parliamentary democracy.[14] With the Verdinaso, Van Severen wanted to form a leading elite that would conquer power in the state through its style and action, rather than overthrow it. The Verdinaso leaned toward theConservative Revolution, more specifically with the Young Conservatives. There was also the influence ofCharles Maurras's nationalistAction Française.
Notes
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)... fascist Italy ... developed a state structure known as the corporate state with the ruling party acting as a mediator between 'corporations' making up the body of the nation. Similar designs were quite popular elsewhere in the 1930s. The most prominent examples wereEstado Novo in Portugal (1932–1968) and Brazil (1937–1945), the AustrianStandestaat (1933–1938), and authoritarian experiments in Estonia, Romania, and some other countries of East and East-Central Europe,
Media related toVerdinaso at Wikimedia Commons