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Brussels riots - Vlaams Belang demands tough crackdown after chaos over French-language education reform Belgium
The Brussels riots of June 4, 2026, left a city shaken. What began as a peaceful demonstration against the controversial education reform Belgium had put forward descended into arson, vandalism and violent clashes with police near Central Station. Vlaams Belang responded immediately, demanding a firm and uncompromising crackdown. Meanwhile, French-language education, already gripped by weeks of strikes, once again found itself at the centre of a broader political debate about
Redactie / Editors
Jun 54 min read
Belgian state reform - a confederation like Switzerland with lower taxes
Belgian state reform needs a clear next step: transform Belgium into a confederation inspired by Switzerland, with more autonomy, stronger responsibility and lower taxes. The current federal system has become too complex, with overlapping powers, too many political layers and an increasingly expensive state. A confederal model could make Belgium simpler, more efficient and more democratic. This is what the biggest coalition party the NV-A already prefers to obtain for the las
Redactie / Editors
Jun 35 min read
Democracy vs. Dictatorship - The free world must form one united front
The battle between democracy vs dictatorship is no abstract ideological debate, it is an existential confrontation unfolding daily on the borders of Ukraine, in the Taiwan Strait, and around Israel. Free world cooperation is not merely a political choice but a matter of survival. Without peace through strength and without fundamental NATO reforms and expansion to include like-minded democratic nations, the West will fall one by one under the pressure of autocratic aggression.
Redactie / Editors
Jun 25 min read
Gazalighting, hostages, accountability and double standards - On the selective outrage dominating our society, media and politics
There is a word that captures precisely what has been happening in our media and politics for the past two years: gazalighting. Just like gaslighting, the psychological manipulation of someone's grip on reality, gazalighting inverts the facts and turns perpetrators into victims. The starting point of this conflict, the bloody terrorist attack carried out by Hamas on October 7, 2023, in which more than 1,200 innocent civilians were murdered and over 250 people taken as hostage
Redactie / Editors
May 304 min read
The asylum crisis demonstrations are a warning to the governing class and democratic legitimacy - Playing with fire in the asylum and migration failure policy in Netherlands
The recent asylum demonstrations protest in Loosdrecht, IJsselstein, Uithoorn, and Apeldoorn are revealing something the Netherlands can no longer ignore. Demonstrators across the country are sounding the alarm: mass migration must stop, and public support has reached its limit. The asylum crisis Netherlands is making the country - along with the rest of Europe - increasingly unrecognisable and less safe. That deserves acknowledgment. More importantly, it demands governmental
Daniël de Liever
May 296 min read
The Double Standard of Belgian Justice - Two Measures, Two justices
Something is profoundly wrong with the Belgian justice system when it comes to freedom of speech. The double standard applied by Belgian justice can no longer be ignored. Two cases, two verdicts, one conclusion: selective justice determines who may speak with impunity in Belgium, and who may not. Freedom of speech, it turns out, is not equal for everyone in practice.
Redactie / Editors
May 283 min read
When the Platform Outgrows the Knowledge - Expertise overreach media responsibility
Marc van Ranst is an expert on viruses. Anuna de Wever has certain knowledge about the climate. Greta Thunberg has CO₂ graphs memorised. That is important knowledge, each of them in their own fields, they deserve attention, recognition, sometimes even admiration. But somewhere between the platform and the microphone, something has gone wrong. Because today those same figures, with that same confidence, are offering their opinions on the Middle East, one of the most complex ge
Redactie / Editors
May 273 min read
Nationality, Citizenship, Democracy, and Integration - Belgium Should No Longer Grant Belgian Nationality to Migrants So Readily
Nationality, citizenship, democracy, and integration require a careful distinction between residence and full membership of the political community. Nationality is more than an administrative document. In a democracy, citizenship means access to political rights, public office, and lasting participation in the community. That is why integration must be central to every policy concerning nationality.
Redactie / Editors
May 234 min read
Keyvan Shahbazi Wins the Pim Fortuyn Prize 2026 - The Iranian Cause in the Dutch Media
With Keyvan Shahbazi winning the Pim Fortuyn Prize 2026, a powerful voice for the Iranian cause in the Dutch media receives the recognition it deserves. For years, Shahbazi has spoken out with clarity, courage and conviction about Iran, freedom of speech, political Islam and the struggle for a free Iran. He is not a distant commentator observing events from the sidelines. He speaks from personal experience, history and belief. His voice was shaped by Iran, but his message has
Redactie / Editors
May 224 min read
First Tehran, then Moscow, and soon Brussels
In July 2025, the Online Safety Act came into force in the United Kingdom, a law designed to keep children away from pornography and other "harmful content." Websites were required to verify "robustly" whether a visitor was of legal age. One of the permitted methods seemed both clever and privacy-friendly: instead of uploading your passport, you simply held your face up to the webcam, after which an AI estimated your age from your facial features. No documents, no hassle. Jus
Thijs Jansen
May 219 min read
Open Letter: Public Broadcaster or Ideological Activism?
Criticism of the VRT is growing. And rightly so. More and more Flemings are asking themselves how it is possible that a public broadcaster, funded by the tax contributions of all citizens, increasingly behaves like an ideological platform promoting a single worldview rather than a neutral news organisation. When neutrality fades, trust follows. The recent intervention by Maarten Boudry on De Afspraak was particularly illuminating in that regard. With concrete examples, he exp
Ralph Pais
May 203 min read
BeNews Podcast: U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Bill White
BeNews Podcast: U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Bill White
Sigal Rabinovitz
May 181 min read
Subsidyland Belgium: mutuality’s, transparency and taxpayer money
Subsidyland, mutuality’s, transparency and tax money are four words that go to the heart of Belgium’s subsidy problem. Belgium has become a subsidyland in which mutuality’s (healthcare insurance organisations), NGOs and countless civil-society organisations no longer stand at the edge of government, but have become almost financially fused with it. The problem is not that solidarity costs money. The problem is that tax money flows through a forest of structures, while transpa
Redactie / Editors
May 185 min read
Budget, spending cuts, the state apparatus and subsidies: Flanders must now dare to press ahead
The Flemish government has reached an agreement on the budget. That is good news in itself, because governing begins with counting. But anyone who counts honestly also knows that one round of spending cuts will not be enough. Flanders cannot continue pretending that the state apparatus will slim down by itself, or that subsidies are sacred cows that must never be led to the slaughterhouse. A sound budget agreement is not the end point. At most, it is the beginning of a mature
Redactie / Editors
May 165 min read
Jewish Déjà Vu - We Are Back in Europe of 1933
A well-known Jewish joke goes like this:
Jakob is walking through a Berlin park on a Sabbath afternoon in 1933 when he spots his friend Samuel sitting on a bench, deeply engrossed in Der Stürmer, the Nazis’ notorious propaganda paper. Horrified, Jakob cries out: “Samuel, what on earth are you doing reading Der Stürmer? Have you become a masochist?” In that sense, we seem to have returned to 1933.
Silvain Salamon
May 153 min read
Belgian Housing Market, Flemish Construction Shift, Immigration and EPC Energy Label Policy - The Housing Crisis as Russian Roulette
Belgian housing market, Flemish construction shift, immigration and housing pressure, and EPC energy label policy are increasingly colliding in a way that makes housing in Belgium feel like Russian roulette. The Belgian housing market is cracking under a combination of scarcity, regulation and immigration. The Flemish construction shift, often referred to as the “concrete stop,” aims to protect open space. Immigration increases population pressure. European energy label polic
Redactie / Editors
May 156 min read
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks - Judaism and Modernity
Last night, Rome’s “Il Pitigliani” Cultural Centre hosted the third conference in the Lechaim – To Life! series, a journey into Jewish identity. The evening was devoted to a paradigmatic figure of contemporary Judaism: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks - thinker, rabbi, moral philosopher, British public intellectual, and tireless interpreter of the Torah.
Lorenzo Cianti
May 1411 min read
Hamas, October 7, and Israeli Victims: How Belgian Media Turned the Story Upside Down
The Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 was not a normal escalation and not a tragic incident in an endless conflict. It was an organised terrorist attack on civilians: on families, young people, the elderly, women and children. Yet over the past years, Belgian media have shifted the moral focus of their reporting from the very beginning. Hamas, October 7, the hostages and the Israeli victims did not remain central. Instead, the focus became almost exclusively Israel as the alleg
Redactie / Editors
May 136 min read
Ayn Rand and the civilisation of the enlightenment
Ayn Rand is not among the authors Stefano Bruno Galli usually engages with in his research. The professor at the University of Milan stated this frankly at the beginning of the fifth lecture of the John Galt School, thanking the students for giving him the opportunity to approach a thinker who is enjoying renewed attention in Italy as well. In recent years, a kind of “Rand mania” has spread: readers, scholars and academics have rediscovered in Rand’s thought an unexpected fre
Lorenzo Cianti
May 128 min read
Zuhal Demir and the Politicisation of Universities
Zuhal Demir was sworn in as Flemish Minister of Education in September 2024. After twenty months in office, it is time to make a preliminary assessment of her record in service of education in Flanders, particularly her attitude toward Flemish universities. Let us begin with her own words on why she entered politics. In an interview on June 29, 2025, she stated that she would no longer allow herself to be constrained by party colours or political positions, claiming instead t
Marc Cogen
May 113 min read
“The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.”
— Ayn Rand
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