Belgium has turned on immigrants in the wake of the Brussels terror attack
as far-right skinhead groups are experiencing a surge in popularity,
promising ‘drastic action’ in the aftermath of the atrocities.
Voorpost,
a Belgian White Power organisation that is being closely monitored by
security services, says its membership has rocketed following the
carnage.
‘A
huge number of people have started supporting us online. We have had
more than double the number of new members in the last three days,’ Bart
Vanpachtenbeke, the leader of the organisation, told MailOnline.
‘There is
anger in Brussels now. I think there are dark times coming. We can’t
give any information, but we are planning a lot of new protests. There
is a lot of drastic action, a lot of noise coming.’
Security services believe there is a real risk of violence coming from the nationalist gang.
‘Intelligence
agencies are concerned about Voorpost’s capacity for violent action,’
said Vidhya Ramalingham, fellow at the German Institute on
Radicalisation and De-radicalisation Studies.
‘They
are carefully monitoring members of the organisation. The numbers are
far smaller than in radical Islam, but there is a serious threat.’
Other
populist organisations have also reported a dramatic spike in support
after the attacks. Tom Van Grieken, leader of the anti-Islam Vlaams
Belang party – Belgian equivalent of France’s Front National – told
MailOnline that his party’s Facebook page gained 10,000 new likes
overnight.
Some of his online posts warning of the dangers of radical Islam, he added, have been shared more than four million times.
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