These are long days at the headquarters of Vlaams Belang. Monday morning an investigation was conducted Humo and Apache exposes the fact that figurehead Filip Dewinter allowed himself to be paid by China in exchange for helping out a Chinese spy. On Wednesday, the Czech secret service BIS announced that the Voice of Europe news site paid several European politicians to take pro-Russian positions, such as stopping European arms deliveries to Ukraine.
Vlaams Belang MPs Filip Dewinter and Filip Brusselmans were also interviewed for the website. In September 2023, Dewinter made a remarkable statement about the war in Ukraine. “The key is in the hands of the Americans,” he said. “If they want to stop the war, they can do so immediately. Immediately. But I don’t have the impression that they have that intention.”
Not paid
According to Vlaams Belang, there is nothing wrong. “To be clear: our members were not aware of Russian interference, and they were not paid for their contributions,” said party spokesman Alexander Van Hoecke. The two agree that they never received any money. Brusselmans knew the journalist in question because he had previously interviewed him, he says. “If I had known what was coming up now, I wouldn’t have done it.”
That does not alter the fact that the Flemish Belangers are in familiar company. Right-wing, Eurosceptic politicians have often spoken on Voice of Europe. Among others, MEP Maximilian Krah, the party leader of the German far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD), was interviewed. The Czechs are said to have information that he was paid for this. Thierry Baudet, the leader of the right-wing populist FvD, and the Dutch MEP Marcel de Graaff, who will soon lead the European FvD list in Flanders, also appeared. They all deny having received any money.
Pedo networks
De Graaff is known for spreading Russian propaganda. During a debate on Russian kidnappings of Ukrainian children, he recently called Ukraine the largest supplier of children for “pedo networks, human smuggling and organ trafficking.”
“What that man said was mind-blowing,” says Hilde Vautmans, Member of the European Parliament for Open Vld. She urged Parliament President Roberta Metsola to investigate Russian influence in the European Parliament. “After Qatargate, we have to be extra vigilant,” she says. “Europe is threatened from within by people who allow themselves to be used by foreign regimes.”
Not only the Czech, but also the Belgian and other European intelligence services worked on this file. In Poland, the counterintelligence service ABW has carried out house searches and questioned people. There have been charges against a Pole there since January. “The man, who had infiltrated Polish and European parliamentarians, carried out tasks on behalf of and financed by the Russian intelligence services,” ABW said.
Has Vlaams Belang once again allowed itself to be pulled over by hostile powers? The party feels that it is being unfairly dragged into this scandal. “A party that is the largest will always face more headwind,” says Van Hoecke.
