Debout Les Belges! (Belgians, Rise up!) is a political group in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, founded and led by avowedly

anti-Zionist Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palestine ...

Belgian MP Laurent Louis, who was previously associated with the Islamist party

ISLAM Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

. The group is associated with

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

comedian

Dieudonné M'bala M'bala Dieudonné M'bala M'bala (; born 11 February 1966), generally known by his stage name Dieudo, is a French comedian, actor and political activist. He has been convicted for hate speech, advocating terrorism, and slander in Belgium, France and Sw ...

and the quenelle gesture which he has popularized, often considered a subversive allusion to the

Nazi salute The Nazi salute, also known as the Hitler salute (german: link=no, Hitlergruß, , Hitler greeting, ; also called by the Nazi Party , 'German greeting', ), or the ''Sieg Heil'' salute, is a gesture that was used as a greeting in Nazi Germany. Th ...

. Although its leader has recently criticized

Alain Soral Alain Bonnet, known as Alain Soral (; born 2 October 1958), is a far-right Franco-Swiss ideologue, essayist, filmmaker and actor. Claiming to have been a member of the French Communist Party in the 1990s, Soral worked for the National Front b ...

, another important leader of

Reconciliation Nationale Reconciliation or reconcile may refer to: Accounting * Reconciliation (accounting) Arts, entertainment, and media Sculpture * ''Reconciliation'' (Josefina de Vasconcellos sculpture), a sculpture by Josefina de Vasconcellos in Coventry Cathedra ...

. The group has been accused of

antisemitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

and a planned gathering of notable anti-Zionists organized by Louis was banned in 2014.

References

Website

Debout Les Belges! website
{{Belgium-party-stub Political parties in Belgium Far-right political parties in Belgium