Flemish friends, let us separate! the discursive struggle for flemish nationalist civil society in the media

Abstract

This article presents a discourse-theoretical analysis of the discursive struggle against the Flemish radical right from within Flemish nationalist civil society as it was fought out in debates about the Flemish National Songfest in the period 1991–1995. Using a discoursetheoretical redefinition of nationalism, the article develops the argument that the discursive struggle against the radical right from within Flemish nationalist civil society has been structured around attenuations of nationalism. Whilst the radical right takes the nationalist premise of the existence of a sovereign and limited nation to its radical conclusions, opposition to the radical right contests the authoritarian and racist consequences of radical nationalism. The radical right’s critics attenuate Flemish nationalism’s radical potential by articulating it with signifiers originating in other discourses: democracy, tolerance, peace and openness. But they do not question the nationalist premises in which the radical right’s authoritarianism and racism are grounded. By analysing these mechanisms, the article contributes to understanding the discursive struggle among Flemish nationalists, and especially the tension inherent in the resistance against radical right politics from the part of more moderate nationalists.