Premier v. Rex

Hotheaded, trumpet-voiced Rexist Leon Degrelle, leader of Belgium's Catholic-Irascist Party, decided last week that he wants to be a member of Belgium's Parliament. He ordered one of the 21 Rexists in the Chamber of Deputies to resign, forced the Government to announce a by-election, nominated himself a candidate. From smart young Liberal Premier Professor Paul van Zeeland came a gallant countermove. He decided to resign his own seat, declared that he himself would oppose Rexist Degrelle "as a non-partisan candidate," then hurried off to the Royal Palace to confer with King Leopold III who fixed April 11 for the contest. Declared the Premier: "I do not intend to campaign by radio. No candidate will resort to the radio. The country would only be uselessly upset through that kind of campaign." Thus was cut from beneath Rexist Degrelle's feet any chance of broadcasting Rexist propaganda under the cloak of vote-canvassing.

Because Rexist Degrelle is a thorn in their flesh and because they appreciate that Premier van Zeeland stands for traditional, quiet Belgian politics and for no fancy isms, the three parties in the Belgian Cabinet coalition -- Catholic, Liberal, Socialist -- agreed to offer no rival candidates. The stage was thus set for a fight between parliamentary government and Rexism, a fight in which Degrelle will get no support that the wily Premier can possibly sidetrack.

Leon Marie Joseph Ignace Degrelle, 30-year-old son of a French brewer who be came a naturalized Belgian citizen, first suspected that he had a talent for demagogy when he used to spellbind his fellow law students at Louvain University. Flung at his head by his enemies are the charges that he got no university degree, that he "evaded military service by falsely pleading heart disease." By 1934 he was running his own paper Rex (taking its name from Christus Rex) which, though purporting to work within the frame of the Catholic Party, offended some Catholic leaders by its personal onslaughts and was ostracized. Followed a noisy Rexist campaign against the "banksters" -- financial powers behind the Government. Already Degrelle was holding hundreds of meetings, had thousands of followers, saluting each other with out stretched arms, wearing red armbands with the cross and crown of Christus Rex in black. Rexism is "against all political parties," mildly antiSemitic. It acknowledges the cultural differences between the "Walloons" (French-speaking Belgians) and the "Flamigantes" (Flemish Nationalists who want a separate autonomous government), contends that the "Flamigantes" should not be obliged to learn French.

In the May elections last year the Rexists won 271,000 votes out of Belgium's total of 2,360,000. Most of these came from Brussels and the agricultural districts. A top-notch propagandist, Degrelle now publishes his organ Rex in three editions, French, Flemish, German, has a circulation of 160,000.

First big Rexist clash with the Government came last October when 5,000 Rexists held a mass demonstration in the streets of Brussels, fought Premier van Zeeland's cavalry with sticks and razor blades (TIME, Nov. 2).

Rexist Degrelle has sufficiently outlined the policy of himself and his party in the hundreds of manifestoes he has made. Excerpts: "Balayer le pourri! Sweep away the rotten!--that is our motto. From now on there are only two parties in Belgium, Rexist and anti-Rexist. . . . We admire what has been achieved in Italy and Germany but we intend to imitate no one. We shall remain in the Belgian tradition, which is that of good humor, common sense, and tolerance. . . . We are against Parliamentary government. We shall protect the artisan, the small trader, the farmer, the family. We stand for discipline, order and social regeneration on a Christian basis. We are against the autocracy of money and the trustification of industry. Ours is a party of national purity. I must have all power or nothing.

Our mission is to harmonize Germany and France. . . . You must never be wrong, and if you are wrong you must now acknowledge it. ... When I take the power--within the next year--I shall keep it for the rest of my life. Think of all the means a government has got to organize its own propaganda." Professor van Zeeland's policy is Europe's nearest approach to the New Deal ideology of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

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