54- ⍟
United States of Fascism reupload.
✠ The Rexist Party, or simply Rex, was a far-right Catholic, nationalist, authoritarian and corporatist political party active in Belgium from 1935 until 1945. The party was founded by a journalist, Léon De…
54- ⍟
United States of Fascism reupload.
✠ The Rexist Party, or simply Rex, was a far-right Catholic, nationalist, authoritarian and corporatist political party active in Belgium from 1935 until 1945. The party was founded by a journalist, Léon Degrelle, and, unlike other fascist parties in the Belgium of the time, advocated Belgian unitarism and royalism. Initially the party ran in both Flanders and Wallonia, but it never achieved much success outside Wallonia and Brussels. Its name was derived from the Roman Catholic journal and publishing company Christus Rex.
The highest electoral achievement of the Rexist Party was its gaining of 21 out of 202 deputies (with 11.4% of the vote) and twelve senators in the 1936 election. Never a mass movement, it was on the decline by 1938. During the German occupation of Belgium in World War II, Rex was the largest collaborationist group in French-speaking Belgium, paralleled by the Vlaams Nationaal Verbond (VNV) in Flanders. By the end of the war Rex was widely discredited, and was banned following the liberation.
Initially modelled on Italian Fascism and Spanish Falangism, it later drew closer to German Nazism. The Party espoused a "right-wing revolution" and the dominance of the Catholic Church in Belgium, but its ideology came to be vigorously opposed by the leader of the Belgian Church Cardinal van Roey, who called Rexism a "danger to the church and to the country". ✠
In photo: Léon Degrelle
Lyrics:
Le siècle marche et pose ses jalons,
Nous marquant une étape nouvelle.
Nous le suivons et nous nous rappelons
Nos aïeux et leur gloire immortelle.
Si ton sol est petit, dans un monde nouveau
L'avenir qui t'appelle a planté ton drapeau.
Marche joyeux, peuple énergique,
Vers des destins dignes de toi.
Dieu protège la libre Belgique
Et son Roi!
English:
The century marches, and lays its grounds
It heralds us a new age!
We follow it, and we remember
Our ancestors, and their immortal glory!
If your land is small, on a new world
The future calling you has your flag on it!
March happily, vigorous people
Towards destinies worthy of you!
God protect free Belgium
And Her King!
