We are delighted to announce that Archibald Gustin, has successfully defended their PhD thesis entitled “Disentangling Far-Right Gender Discourses: A Discursive-Theoretical Analysis of Vlaams Belang's Patriarchal Politics”, on the 19th of June 2025 in Liège. This PhD is part of a cooperation agreement between the Université de Liège (ULiège) and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).
This PhD was completed under the supervision of ECHO co-director Pr. Dr Geoffrey Grandjean (Université de Liège) & Pr. Dr Benjamin De Cleen (Vrije Universiteit Brussel). The members of the jury were:
- Pr. Dr Edouard Delruelle (Université de Liège (Université de Liège, head of the jury)
- Pr. Dr Karen Celis (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
- Pr. Dr Jenny Gunnarsson Payne (Södertörn University)
- Pr. Dr Pascal Perrineau (Sciences Po Paris)
Abstract
In early 2023, reacting to an article of the Flemish weekly Knack titled “Women and the far right: why do women vote for parties that want to restrict their rights?”, Vlaams Belang published a statement on its website, claiming that there were no “bigger defenders of women’s rights” than them.
Similarly, two years earlier, the Flemish MP Sam Van Rooy argued in the Flemish Parliament that Vlaams Belang is “the most gay-friendly party”, claiming that “LGBTQI+ individuals who want to be safe and free choose Vlaams Belang, and there are more and more of them!”.
Thus, despite its historical opposition to women’s and LGBTQ+ rights, Vlaams Belang now counterintuitively claims to be a champion of women's and LGBTQ+ rights.
How can we explain this situation? What are the different components of Vlaams Belang’s contemporary gender discourses (i.e., the far-right party’s discourses regarding gender equality and sexuality issues), how have they evolved, and how can the apparent contradictions between them be explained? This thesis aims to answer those questions, by disentangling the Flemish far-right party’s gender discourses, as well as by highlighting their patriarchal nature.
Congratulations again to Dr. Archibald Gustin!