Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

Orangism (Belgium)

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Orangism was a political current in what is now Belgium that supported its inclusion in the short-lived United Kingdom of the Netherlands (1815–1830). After the secession of Belgium in 1830, Orangist sentiment in Flanders and Wallonia for a time sought a restoration of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. It was a movement directed by William I of the Netherlands as part of his "Volhardingspolitiek" and containing most of the Belgian elites (nobility, industrials). Some of the most prominent Flemish Orangists were Jan Frans Willems and Hippolyte Metdepenningen. Although refusing the partake in parliamentary elections as they deemed the Belgian institutions as illegitimate, the Orangists did take part in local elections (province and municipal) from which they activated against the new Belgian state through political actions and an activist press. At least three Orangist coups were foiled during the 1830s. Although losing Dutch financial and political support after the Treaty of London (1839) and William I's abdication (1840), the weakening Belgian Orangism survived well into the 1850s, strongly opposing the Belgian Revolution and rallying against independence.

It was one inspiration for the later Greater Netherlands movement, although that movement was not all monarchist.

Present day

  • Louis Tobback (Socialist politician)
  • Siegfried Bracke (Flemish nationalist politician, former journalist)
  • Herman Balthazar (Historian, professor, former governor of East Flanders)
  • Geert van Istendael (Writer, poet, essayist)
  • Bob Cools (Socialist politician, former mayor of Antwerp)
  • References

    Orangism (Belgium) Wikipedia