Frank Vanhecke

Frank Vanhecke (born 30 May 1959 Bruges ) is a Belgian right-wing politicians.

He was Chairman of the Vlaams Blok from 1996 and since 2004 Chairman of the successor party Vlaams Belang. The Vlaams Blok was classified as a separatist, xenophobic and racist by a judgment of the Supreme Court of Belgium in November 2004 and therefore broke up.

Vanheckes political career began with a membership in the Student Jong Enver Bond and later in the Nationalist on Studentenvereniging ( Nationalist Student Association ). In 1977 he resigned from the Volksunie and joined the Vlaams Nationale Partij, a predecessor of the Vlaams Blok party.

Vanhecke was a member of the 4th and the 6th European Parliament and is a member of the 7th European Parliament. In January 2007 he joined the newly formed extreme right group " Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty " in which was dissolved in November 2007. On 11 July 2011 Vanhecke left the Vlaams Belang. In November 2011, he joined the Group in Europe of freedom and democracy.

In the period 2009-2014 is Vanhecke member of the Development Committee, the Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Delegation for relations with Australia and New Zealand. As a deputy, he is in the Budgetary Control and the Delegation to the ACP -EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.