Far-right Flemish party Vlaams Belang has come under fire for its programme's emphasis on "pushing" women to have children at a young age. The party has hotly denied the framing but its approach to reproduction tallies with that of other far-right parties across Europe.
The party blames existing policy for preventing families from having as many children as they might like to and proposes doubling child benefits for any woman who has children under the age of 30, as well as extending both maternity and paternity leave. "A healthy community welcomes children," its manifesto states. "Choosing to have children is a positive act of self-confidence. When this is repeated, it strengthens the nation as well as the family."
However, many of the incentives proposed by the party only apply to parents who have had EU nationality eight years before the child's birth. One of the parents must have worked or studied for at least three years.
The policies are also intended to hold back mass migration: last year, prominent Vlaams Belang MP Filip Dewinter told Humo that "Europeans are aging and dying out while the African population is growing rapidly. Fortress Europe will not be enough."
Belgian political parties on the other side of the cordon sanitaire – in place against Vlaams Belang since the late 1980s – have rallied together to denounce the party's reproductive agenda. "We are in the middle of a very conservative revival, with more and more voices calling for women to return to the home," Vooruit leader Freya Van den Bossche told De Standaard.
"It is not that far-fetched," said Groen co-president Nadia Naji. "Wherever the extreme right comes to power, women's rights deteriorate."
by tesrepurwash121810