Vlaams Belang opens a manhunt for “woke poison” in education: disciplinary committee, sanctions and reporting point

“We are involved in a culture war,” writes Vlaams Belang chairman Tom Van Grieken in the opening lines of the forty-page brochure. Culture battle. “It was started by the left, which has since been radicalized and now calls itself woke.” Vlaams Belang calls itself the only party that “not only wants to point out the absurdities, but also wants to actively challenge them”.

Already during the presentation of the election program last weekend, Flemish education in particular appeared to be the target. In the more extensive brochure, Vlaams Belang talks about “poison” in society and a “virus” that is spreading. “It all started in academia, at universities and colleges. The logical consequence is that students become seriously influenced by the ideas. In this way, woke thinking organically seeps into the curricula of primary and secondary schools.”

It remains vague and unclear in the brochure how exactly that “poison” and that “woke thinking” manifest themselves in Flemish education. Woke mainly serves as a catchall for all kinds of forms of what the party calls “politically correct thinking”, such as “gender ideology”, “decolonization”, “body positivity” or “attacks on traditions”. To put a stop to this, she wants to implement far-reaching control measures when she comes to power.

Research leader

First and foremost, the party wants an “independent investigation into the presence of the woke ideology in the entire Flemish education system”. A newly established scientific committee must systematically investigate “woke censorship and freedom of education”. Moreover, the Flemish government must appoint a research leader for this purpose. They will be given the freedom to “ask additional research questions, appoint experts themselves and invite representatives of the institutions and staff”. According to the party, this broad power for the investigation leader is necessary to “exclude as much as possible any suspicion of government interference.”

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The party specifically focuses on autonomous higher education, “including in particular Ghent University, HOGent, Erasmus University Brussels and Howest”. These institutions must “get their affairs back in order” and their boards of directors must be “redemocratized”. Vlaams Belang talks about, among other things, “manifest abuse of power, even from the top of the institutions that all belong to state education” and wants to install a proportional delegation of the political parties in the boards of directors for “democratic control”. The party does not say exactly what abuse of power it is about.

In addition, Vlaams Belang advocates “an overarching disciplinary committee that can take sanctions” in cases where academic staff or registered students “would impose censorship on colleagues, managers, subordinates, students or third parties involved in their academic assignment”. On the one hand, the party emphasizes that it “does not target individual teachers”, on the other hand it states that “in serious cases of abuse of power and discrimination, it must be possible to take not only sensitizing and policy-based action, but also sanctioning”. The party has not yet decided on what sanctions these will be.

In addition to the research leader, Vlaams Belang also wants to install a new government commissioner within the Flemish government. He must not only monitor compliance with the legislation by educational institutions, but is also instructed to “pay structural attention to the influence of the woke ideology and forms of censorship as a result”. The government commissioner must “monitor this and immediately report it to the Flemish government”.

Reporting points

The commissioner is assisted in this by, among other things, reporting points where students can report teachers or professors themselves. Vlaams Belang literally talks about “a woke hotline to protect students against excesses”. Because, the party says, “in a left-dominant environment such as some university departments, it is not always self-evident for students to express their opinions free from dogma.”

The party refers to the Hypatia initiative, founded by a number of Flemish and Dutch academics to address woke incidents in higher education. “That needs to be further developed. Individual students must also be able to report discriminatory language,” the text says.

“No witch hunt”

A few years ago, Tom Van Grieken posted a Tiktok video on September 1 in which he warned that he would “present the bill to all those left-wing teachers in 2024”. The Vlaams Belang Youth also called for reporting “left-wing language in the classroom” via a form on their website. The party does not rule out that there will also be a reporting center for secondary school students.

“Students are in a weak position compared to people in authority, such as teachers, lecturers and professors. Students who fall victim to woke thinking or associated abuse of power, discrimination and intimidation must be able to report this so that this can be systematically investigated,” it said. “This also serves as a signal that woke has no place in our education and that everyone should be aware of that.”

Vlaams Belang itself maintains in the brochure that these far-reaching measures are not censorship. “Our call is not an attack on academic freedom and certainly does not want to lead to witch hunts, quite the opposite. Vlaams Belang wants to protect academic freedom and democratic pluralism,” it said.