Editor’s note: Jonas Greindberg, a German-based journalist who covers conservative parties in Europe, conducted an interview with Mr. Dries Van Langenhove last week after Langenhove was sentenced to one year in jail for memes found in his possession. Mr. Langenhove is a former member of the Belgian parliament, founder of the Flemish Identitarian movement “Schild & Vrienden,” and an influential political dissident in Belgium.
Jonas Greindberg: On the 13th of March, a Belgian court sentenced you to one year in prison and gave you a hefty fine. What did you do?
Dries Van Langenhove: An undercover journalist discovered allegedly politically incorrect memes in a private group chat. They were then broadcast on public television in Belgium. A huge police investigation followed which took many years, they raided my house three times. They stole my computer, my smartphone, every electronic device, every piece of paper they took away. And after four or five years of investigation, the only thing that they allegedly found was memes and a picture of a flask of pepper spray. That’s all that they found. And they are now using that to send me to jail.
The most influential and the biggest political dissident, political opposition figure in Belgium is being sent to jail for memes in a private group chat. Memes, just to be clear, that I myself didn’t even post and most of the time didn’t even see. Our Belgian media and politicians are constantly blabbering about people like Navalny in Russia, but what is happening here in Belgium is the Western equivalent to what is happening in some other states around the world when it comes to the shutting down of political opposition. I myself didn’t do anything wrong, I have just served my nation, I have done my duty as I said to make sure that the lands of our ancestors remain the lands of our descendants.
Greindberg: Part of the verdict is that you lose your political rights. So how are we able to this discussion on politics at this moment?
Langenhove: Because I appealed the court sentence. So now I have about, I think, six or seven months at maximum to keep doing what I do, to speak the truth, hopefully in an uncensored way. I’ve been pleading to Elon Musk to allow me to freely speak on X to present my case to the world, to let the world know what is happening in Western Europe when you are a political dissident. And after that, I will either be cleared of any wrongdoing or I will be sentenced to a jail sentence and possibly be shut down forever in Belgium.
The punishment is one year in jail, an effective jail sentence. It’s a 16,000 euro fine and 10,000 euros in damages, then about an extra 10,000 euros in court fees. And then I also lose my political rights for 10 years, which is the harshest sentence that they could legally give me. And it means that I cannot participate in politics for 10 years, which shows ever more clearly that this is a political case.
Greindberg: In June, Belgium will elect a new federal parliament. Is this the opportunity to turn Belgium around?
Langenhove: I hope so. I think there is a realistic opportunity, a realistic chance of “Vlaams Belang,” a real nationalist party, getting into power. They are right now getting a third of the votes, which is huge. And we also have a moderate nationalist party that gets about 15 to 20 percent of the votes. So together they could form a nationalist government which could light the fire of nationalism all throughout Europe, I hope, because that would turn the center of Europe, Brussels and Flanders, into a nationalist stronghold that really is our dream, our goal, and something I strive towards with all the projects that I am leading with my media channel, my videos. It sounds cliche, but the coming elections may be the most important elections in the history of our country.
Greindberg: On the same day the Belgian parliament is elected, there will be the elections for the European parliament. For the first time in the history of the EU, citizens at the age of 16 can cast their vote. How will the Flemish youth vote?
Langenhove: In the past elections in 2019 where I got elected as the youngest member of the Belgian parliament showed that I was the most popular political figure with the Flemish youth. Even though the demographic clock is ticking and many of our youth have foreign backgrounds, “Vlaams Belang” is still by far the most popular political party with the Flemish youth, especially with Flemish young men. With young women more leftwing parties are slightly more popular. That is so across the whole world, across the whole West. Every investigation into voter behavior shows that women tend to lean more to the left, men tend to lean more to the right.
Dries Van Langenhove outside his offices in Belgium.
Greindberg: Should Belgium stay in the EU?
Langenhove: When I speak to people like Victor Orbán, he believes that we can change the European Union from the inside out. I have a slightly more pessimistic point of view. I think supranational and global institutions will end up eventually being leftwing, universalist, egalitarian, simply because these institutions attract people that have this mindset. If you’re at university, for example, you’re a right-wing student, you mostly study economics, business, you study to become a doctor or a lawyer or a businessman, an engineer. But if you’re leftist, you’re more going to study human sciences, political science, international or European studies, stuff like that. And these people end up more in these international institutions.
The real power, unfortunately, doesn’t really lie with the European Parliament. I believe that even if the European Parliament would one day end up having a majority of nationalist or conservative or right-wing leaning MEPs, I still think that the bureaucracy, the Eurocracy as we call it in Flanders, will consist of so many leftist thinkers that it will be very hard to really implement right-wing politics in the European Union. Which is not to say that elections don’t matter, we have an obligation to make sure that as many right-wing MEPs get elected as possible.
But I think that the real change will come from nation states, from people like Viktor Orbán. He stands alone sometimes in European negotiations, but he does really make a difference. Imagine if there would be five or six Viktor Orbán’s in the European Union, or someday, perhaps even a majority of the European leaders consisting of people such as Viktor Orbán. That would really create the biggest difference, I think.
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