14th December 2009 could have simply been no more than one day in 2009 calendar, one day to welcome holidays and remember those special moments lived throughout the year, perhaps a good day to say goodbye to an intense decade and get ready to receive a new one. This day would however become especially different, particularly regretful, singularly shameful. This very day created a tendency amongst many Flemish students to let behind long years of tolerance and common sense. After years of vain struggle, last 14th of December saw the right-wing extremist student association NSV! enter the Political-Philosophical Convent of the University of Ghent. And then came Leuven.

For long years, NSV! Leuven extremists struggled to be acknowledged by K.U.Leuven and so take advantage of every economic and material benefit that it provides to student associations. Their struggle, however, was anything but material; their struggle was social and political. Apparently, they complied with every student code, they accepted every rule, they signed every required document. Nevertheless, a statement does not mean anything at all, a word means absolutely nothing and a signature means even much less.

The NSV! cannot rub out its past, as its present is a clear continuation thereof. Although this explanation is as straightforward as the real NSV! aims and ideology, LOKO and K.U.Leuven student representatives seemed to be incapable of making a value judgement: a judgement on revisionism, racial and political hatred and secessionist values. Declining to consider NSV!’s socio-political stance in the decision-making process and acknowledging it for its compliance with LOKO’s bureaucratic requirements is nothing but an enormous mistake, a complete clanger. It is difficult to question that a student body council promoting multicultural and tolerant values loses all its credibility when acknowledging a right-wing extremist student association.

NSV!’s ideology is perfectly known amongst Belgian students, and so are its actions. Its violent record is as (un)popular as its pretentious annual demonstration and there is in fact a great connection between them both. Its undemocratic nature is furthermore aggravated with a totalitarian admission process that allows their members to select only those who strictly follow their ideas and comply with their rules. Moreover, from a pragmatic point of view, its activities, exclusively focused on political aims, are completely useless for students and lack utility in the student University system. No wonder why they are more preoccupied with their outlandish paraphernalia than with their real student raison d’être.

Racism, xenophobia and homophobia are some of the main ideological values shared by NSV! members. Many NSV!-grown political personalities constitute living proofs of such values and most of them have developed their careers in former illegalised political parties – Guess which? Many NSV! members have even established ties with the American extremist racist group KKK, former NSV!-Ghent member F.R. being one possible example. He even admitted NSV! to be a “solidarist” association, giving a conspiratorial wink to Italian Dictator Mussolini’s doctrine.

Along its whole history, NSV! has been mockingly frolicking with freedom and universal human rights and a single signature of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights means absolutely nothing today. It means nothing to Ghent University, to the K.U.Leuven, to democracy and to students, and it should certainly mean nothing to their representatives and to LOKO either. Democracy belongs solely to those who believe in it and those who do not are simply out. Acknowledging the NSV! means strengthening freedom detractors and this must be tolerated under no circumstances.

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