"Over identiteit" (Over Identity) new book by Flemish leader Bart de Wever

In his book "Over Identity", Bart De Wever, the president of the N-VA (New Flemish Alliance), delivers his vision on Flemish identity. What are the necessary guidelines for the constitution of the foundations of the Flemish identity? in a society eaten up by "cultural relativism"? "We need new source code to reinvent ourselves as a community." He sweeps the history of the European continent, opening each of his chapters with a Latin quote. He is particularly critical of how the phenomenon of migration has been apprehended in recent years.

He denounces a society composed of partitioned communities instead of a gradual return to "us". There is no community without "dominant culture" (leidcultuur), he analyzes. And this culture, Bart De Wever believes that it is based on the "Enlightenment", this philosophical current initiator of modernity and which spread in Europe from the second half of the seventeenth century:

"A dominant culture dominates, but does not constrain, no individual can or should feel compelled to declare himself fully in agreement with the principles of the Enlightenment ... But we must accept that the dominant culture is the foundation This means that society uses this rule to choose how to organize public life and that the private culture of a citizen is of secondary interest. "
"Our national identity is Flemish"

"Citizenship is not a piece of paper that everyone is offered as a welcome gift." The president of the national Flemish party no longer believes in Belgium as a community. Flanders is the frame of reference for the Flemish, he judges. "The Flemish cultural community is today the most relevant framework in which we live our identity.Our national identity is Flemish, but it may have the ambition to eventually become European."

Four principles must underlie this Flemish identity.

→ The first of these is the neutrality of the public authority, which assumes that "citizens do not draw any automatic right of their personal identity in public culture". One of the illustrations is the prohibition of convictions in public education or the public service.

→ The second principle is based on the knowledge of Dutch, "language of the community", a prerequisite for participating in public life.

→ Enlightenment values ​​as the "software" of public culture constitute the third principle. De Wever aims for freedom, equality, solidarity, the separation of Church and State, the rule of law and the sovereignty of the people.

→ Citizenship forms the fourth principle. "Citizenship is not a piece of paper that everyone is offered as a welcome gift." To enjoy it involves staying for some time, knowing the language of the community and proving that one participates in it. A "citizenship test" would verify if these conditions are fulfilled, crowned by a ceremony where the integration of the citizen as a new member of the community would be celebrated.