When Paul Belien writes from Brussels that immigrants have tipped the balance in Belgium’s elections, he’s not talking about what GOP strategists are talking about when they’re pandering to the Hispanic vote, which is immigrants actually voting themselves, possibly against the best interests of the nation as a whole.

He’s talking about the fact that actual Belgians have come out in force to vote for a third party that promises to do something about immigration.

They have achieved this in the face of genuine political persecution; an earlier party with the same ideals was banned by their Supreme Court. (See my article It Happened Here and Belien’s own article on Vdare.com, Anti-Immigration Party Banned In Belgium, and Stephen Pollard’s piece in the Times Of London, I’ve seen the future: it’s scary and Belgian, [April 24, 2004, also here]

Note that one of the oppositions tactics was to rush immigrants to citizenship, just for the purpose of voting for themselves.

The idea that immigration restriction can get a lot of votes is something that American politicians need to learn. Third parties do happen, and when they happen, it’s because neither party is providing what the voters want.

Turning Red: Immigrants Tip the Balance in Belgian Local Elections

By Paul Belien

In last March’s local elections in the Netherlands the immigrant vote tipped the balance in favour of the Socialists. The same phenomenon marked yesterday’s local elections in Belgium’s major cities. In Antwerp the Socialists became the largest party. They jumped from 19.5% to 35.3% of the votes, winning 22 of the 55 seats in the municipal council – a gain of ten seats. Seven of the Socialist councillors, almost one third of the total, are Muslim immigrants: Fatma Akbas, Karim Bachar, Ouardia El Taghdouini, Youssef Slassi, Fauzaya Talhaoui, Güler Turan, and Sener Ugurlu. Six of the seven are new in politics.

The self-declared “islamophobic” and Flemish-secessionist Vlaams Belang [Flemish Interest], which until yesterday was Antwerp’s largest party, gained a few extra votes, winning 33.5% of the vote (33.0% last time). Its number of seats remains steady at 20. Antwerp politics is now defined by a polarization between Socialists and the VB. Apart from the VB all parties lost heavily to the Socialists (-7.3% for the Liberals and -6.4% for the Greens). The only party able to avoid being swallowed by the Socialists are the Christian-Democrats. They won 11.2% of the votes, adding an extra 0.1%, and kept their six seats. The Christian-Democrats, too, had put forward immigrant candidates. Two of their elected candidates, one third of the total, are Muslims: Nahima Lanjri and Ergün Top.

The VB also stagnated in other cities with large numbers of immigrants, such as Brussels, Ghent and Mechelen. After the 2000 local elections, in which the VB gained considerably, the Belgian regime extended the vote to immigrants for municipal elections and passed the so-called “Quick Citizenship Bill.” The latter grants hassle-free Belgian citizenship virtually upon demand to every individual who has lived in the country for three (in some cases only two) years, which enfranchises them in the general elections, too (voting is compulsory in Belgium). These measures were introduced with the specific intent of countering the VB.

As Leona Detiège, the then Socialist Antwerp mayor, told Knack Magazine on 13 September 2000: “The Vlaams Blok [as the Vlaams Belang was called at the time] is currently overrepresented because the immigrants are not allowed to vote.” And as Johan Leman, the then director of the Center for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism (CEOOR), a government agency working for the Belgian Prime Minister, announced in the newspaper De Standaard on 15 January 2000: “What will ‘our own people’ still mean fifteen years from now? We will get so many new Belgians that this slogan becomes meaningless. The Vlaams Blok is a thing of the past.” Meanwhile six of Leman’s fifteen years have passed…

Ironically, as I pointed out earlier, in their efforts to counter the indigenous “racists” and “fascists” of the VB, the Socialists and Christian-Democrats do not hesitate to put far-right Muslim candidates on their electoral lists. Some of them, such a Murat Denizli, a member of the Turkish racist and fascist organization Grey Wolves which assassinates Socialist councilors at home, have now become Socialist councilors in Belgium (Mr Denizli was elected for the Parti Socialiste in the Brussels borough of Schaarbeek).

On 10 September I wrote that European politics will swing dramatically to the Left in the coming decades, owing to the growing influence of an immigrant vote eager to retain and expand the welfare benefits. Another trend, however, is also visible.

While yesterday’s elections saw the VB stagnate in the cities the party won massively in the smaller towns and villages. This is likely to continue. While Europe’s cities and major towns turn Muslim and red, the countryside will remain indigenous and will become ever more “islamophobic” and hostile to the cities. The indigenous Europeans – at least if they can afford it – are moving out of the cities (indeed, they are fleeing them). As Filip Dewinter, the VB leader in Antwerp, said in an interview last month: “I am a realist. The number of potential voters for our party is declining year by year [in Antwerp, which has 460,000 inhabitants]. Currently a quarter of the population are immigrants. These people do not vote for us. Every year 4,000 indigenous Antwerpians move out and 5,000 immigrants move in.”

The former city dwellers have moved to suburbia, where towns such as Schoten saw their percentage of VB voters rise yesterday from 24.5 to 34.7%, and to rural districts such as Mol, which saw the VB grow from 13.1 to 21.9%.Source URL:
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/1480

According to the figures cited by Rep. Steve King, the crimes committed daily by illegal aliens take a shocking toll against innocent American citizens.

What would that May 1st look like without illegal immigration? There would be no one to smuggle across our southern border the heroin, marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamines that plague the United States, reducing the U.S. supply of meth that day by 80%. The lives of 12 U.S. citizens would be saved who otherwise die a violent death at the hands of murderous illegal aliens each day. Another 13 Americans would survive who are otherwise killed each day by uninsured drunk driving illegals. Our hospital emergency rooms would not be flooded with everything from gunshot wounds, to anchor babies, to imported diseases to hangnails, giving American citizens the day off from standing in line behind illegals. Eight American children would not suffer the horror as a victim of a sex crime.
[Biting the Hand That Feeds You, by Rep. Steve King, Des Moines Register, 4/26/06]

One recent addition to the tragic list of citizens sacrificed for open borders was Randy Fout, 55, the Assistant Principal of Mountain View High School of Meridian, Idaho. He was killed October 4 when his ‘72 VW Beetle was smashed by a stop-sign-running truck driven by illegal alien, Jesus Guzman-Manzo. The car burst into flames when it hit a power pole. He was dead when rescuers were able to pull him out of the car.

The driver fled, and state police searched the area with dogs. He was located in the home of his aunt Wednesday night, after she called authorities. He was later jailed for felony hit and run. He may also be charged with vehicular manslaughter.

Students described Assistant Principal Fout as an upbeat and friendly guy, encouraging to kids and caring about their well being and education.

“He’s so friendly and he makes everyone feel like their important. The way he asks his questions and he always wants to know about you. Even if he doesn’t know you personally, he will know you personally. He just loves all the students,” said Kimberly Anderson, Junior.

“He was just one of those people that you wanted to be around all the time,” said Brynn Seegmiller, Freshman.
Remembering Randy Fout, KBCI 10/5/06

Randy Fout is survived by his wife, Mary, and three children: Angie Ellis, Nathan Fout and Bob Gwyn.

This is one of those things that gets discussed over and over, because, like various other illegal and hard to count activities, the guilty parties aren’t talking. Here’s a useful chart of the various estimates from the Christian Science Monitor. [Illegal immigrants in the US: How many are there? By Brad Knickerbocker,May 16, 2006]

I kind of like the Bear Stearns estimate. [PDF]But hey, a million here, a million there… [See D. A. King's estimate of 20 million illegals here.]