Verdinaso

Verdinaso (Verbond van Dietsche Nationaal-Solidaristen, Union of Dutch National Solidarists), sometimes rendered as Dinaso, was a small fascist political movement active in Belgium and, to a lesser extent, the Netherlands between 1931 and 1941. Verdinaso was founded by Joris Van Severen, Jef François, Wies Moens, and Emiel Thiers on 6 October 1931 at a meeting in the Hôtel Richelieu in Ghent. It emerged from the Flemish Movement although, under Van Severen's leadership, it moved towards a novel authoritarian political ideology, which he referred to as National Solidarism. The organisation had initially called for the reunification of Flanders with the Netherlands in a Greater Netherlands (Dietschland) but discarded this ideal in 1934 in favour of a broader corporatist ideology calling for the establishment of a federated authoritarian polity on the model of the Burgundian Netherlands which would incorporate the whole of Belgium and possibly Luxembourg. The party remained small but succeeded in attracting several young students and intellectuals inspired by Italian Fascism and Portugal's Estado Novo. It established a paramilitary wing in 1937, identified by its members' green shirts, known as the Dinaso Militant Order (Dinaso Militanten Orde). Although Verdinaso never gained a mass following, its role in diminishing support for the established Flemish Front (Vlaamsche Front) at the 1929 elections led to the latter's decision to substantially reorganise itself in 1931 into the Flemish National League (Vlaamsch Nationaal Verbond) and to shift its ideological mainstream away from democratic reform and pacificism towards right-wing authoritarianism. The party was against the parliamentary democracy and eventually advocated a corporative society ruled by the Belgian King. As such it never participated in elections and never became a potent political pressure group. The Verdinaso initially advocated Flemish and Dutch nationalism.