Fear of crime as a political weapon: explaining the rise of extreme right politics in the Flemish countryside

Abstract

In this article, we discuss the recent success of extreme right politicians in the Flemish countryside. Because the Vlaams Belang, the dominant extreme right-wing party in Flanders, plays to racist attitudes and everyday fears, we study the interrelations between the rise of the extreme right, racism and a spatialized and racialized culture of fear. Based on a multi-level analysis of spatial variations of racism and a qualitative analysis of focus group interviews on fear of crime, we suggest that a rural or suburban vote for the extreme right Vlaams Belang has to be understood as a protest vote against the racialization and the insecurity of the central cities and as an anticipatory vote that has to stop the imagined infection of the 'white' and 'safe' countryside with urban 'diseases' like crime and foreigners.

Geographies of Whiteness and Wealth: White, Middle Class Discourses on Segregation and Social Mix in Flanders, Belgium

“…While the discourses of urban dwellers were rather similar to those of suburban ones, the lack of generalizations about the whole city, the absence of cultural stereotypes about all foreigners and the nonexistence of widespread fear suggest that their experience of poverty and diversity may have a meaningful impact upon their actions and convictions (cf. Schuermans & De Maesschalck, ; Valentine, ). As such, we are convinced that a new perspective on the social cost of residential segregation and the real potentialities of social mix will be opened up by enlarging the geographical focus of segregation studies and by incorporating research on the seemingly banal discourses and practices through which social, economic and cultural privileges associated with whiteness and wealth are protected and challenged in everyday life.…”

“…In the interviews, this racialization of (parts of) the city was often complemented by a mental chain that connected the suburbs with whiteness and middleclassness (cf. Schuermans & De Maesschalck, ). In the same way as the English village has been described as a “potent symbol in the construction and control of a racialized set of specifically middle class values” (Tyler, , p. 408) and a “repository of white values, ideologies and lifestyles” (Hubbard, , p. 12), the Flemish suburb is imagined to be a white, middle class residential haven away from the poverty and the diversity of the city.…”

“…In this context, it is important to note that urban residents generally feel much more comfortable in the city than the suburban dwellers quoted above (cf. Schuermans & De Maesschalck, ). Many interviewees from Ghent were sure that previous experiences had made them feel less insecure when walking around in poor, multicultural districts.…”

Fragments of an anti‐fascist geography: Interrogating racism, nationalism, and state power

“…Reflecting an electoral strategy that Davey () identifies as targeting peripheral and “forgotten” communities, the far right operates in ways that articulate a politics of hope and renewal for those “left behind” or who feel threatened by change (cf. Schuermans & de Maesschalck, ). Thus, Ince () identifies a tendency among the far right in cultivating a sense of authenticity that mobilises target groups' place‐based nostalgia.…”

Geography textbooks and the reproduction of a racist and ethnocentric world view among young people in Flanders

“…This distrust of foreigners manifests itself in other studies as well. Focus group interviews on fear of crime in a technical school on the Flemish countryside revealed, for instance, that a lot of young adolescents are afraid of the city (Schuermans & De Maesschalck, 2010). While some students are too scared to walk around in a town like Mechelen after dark, others do, but keep a constant eye on their belongings.…”