Party of New Forces (Belgium)

Belgian political party

Party of New Forces (French: Parti des forces nouvelles, pronounced [paʁti de fɔʁs nuvɛl], PFN) was a Belgian far-right political party active in Wallonia. Although they share a name it is not directly connected to the Party of New Forces in France.

## Emergence

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The PFN first emerged in 1975 under the name Forces Nouvelles, initially operating as a coalition of like-minded extremists rather than a political party.[1] Early members of the group had come from the Front de la Jeunesse.[2] Its early years were dominated by internal struggles, resulting in the group doing little publicly between 1975 and 1980 due to this strife.[3]

In 1979 the group was instrumental in the formation of Eurodroite, an alliance of European far-right political parties that also included the Italian Social Movement (MSI), the French PFN and Fuerza Nueva amongst others.[4]

## Ideology

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Ideologically the party tended towards the neo-fascist[2] or neo-Nazi[5] end of the far-right and sought early contact with the MSI.[2] It celebrated the heritage of Rexism and shared with it contempt for parliamentary democracy and support for corporatism in economics.[2] The group also adopted a strongly anti-American strain to its discourse.[2] Whilst anti-immigration has been at the centre of its appeal the PFN has also focused on anti-Semitism and has been active in promoting Holocaust denial.[1] Its anti-immigrant rhetoric frequent included calls to biological racism.[2] Repatriation of immigrants was a central part of their position.[6] The group has also campaigned vigorously against abortion.[1]

## Elections

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The group contested the 1989 regional elections but failed to attract much support, capturing only 1.1% of the vote in Brussels.[1] The PFN spent much of the 1980s competing with the Front National for votes and tended to come off worse. Thus in Brussels in 1985 the PFN won 0.7% of the vote to the FN's 0.5% (the FN having been formed only that year) but by the 1988 municipal elections this had shifted to 0.5% for the FN to 0.9% for the FN whilst by 1991 the FN had won seats in the Chamber of Representatives.[7] Nonetheless, it did manage to gain pockets of local support, with its vote rising as high as 15% in some districts.[2]

## Decline

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The PFN supported the use of publicity stunts in order to raise its profile and took a stand at the Brussels International Book Fair where its stock of Holocaust denial material attracted police attention. A scuffle broke out when the police attempted to remove the stall, with the incident widely covered in the Belgian press.[2] The incident however exacerbated internal divisions and in 1989 Willy Freson and the Liège group of the PFN split to form their own movement, Agir.[2] Robert Destrouder, a member of the PFN secretariat, also switched over to this new group.[2]

After 1989 the PFN continued to decline, with many party members switching allegiance to the FN thereafter.[8] Having been seriously weakened by these splits and having failed to make any headway in the elections it contested the PFN formally dissolved in 1991.[2] Following its disappearance some members joined the Walloon Regional Front, a short-lived group that was itself absorbed by the FN in 1993 whilst others went into a new group, Renouveau Nationaliste (formed in 1993), a group closely associated with the French and European Nationalist Party.[9]

## References

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1. ^ a b c d Christopher T. Husbands, "Belgium: Flemish Legions on the March", Paul Hainsworth (ed.), The Extreme Right in Europe & the USA, Pinter, 1992, p. 133
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Piero Ignazi, Extreme Right Parties in Western Europe, Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 128
3. ^ Elisabeth Carter, The Extreme Right in Western Europe: Success Or Failure?, Manchester University Press, 2005, p. 75
4. ^ R. Chiarini, 'The Movimento Sociale Italiano: A Historical Profile', L. Cheles, R. Ferguson & M. Vaughan, Neo-Fascism in Europe, Harlow: Longman, 1992, p. 38
5. ^ Carter, The Extreme Right in Western Europe, p. 59
6. ^ Carter, The Extreme Right in Western Europe, p. 33
7. ^ Husbands in Hainsworth, Extreme Right, p. 134
8. ^ Ignazi, Extreme Right Parties, p. 129
9. ^ Institute of Jewish Affairs, Antisemitism World Report 1994, Institute of Jewish Affairs, 1994, pp. 14-15

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