‘Scientific’ nationalism

This paper investigates how the discursive battle for the F lemish nation is waged in the F lemish mass media by politicians of the F lemish nationalist party, the N ew F lemish A lliance ( N ‐ VA ). I focus on the ‘new nationalism’ that N ‐ VA politicians advocate as a means to ‘banalise’ a hot F lemish nationalism. I establish that N ‐ VA spokespeople and especially their chairman B art D e W ever invoke discursive alliances with established scholars such as A nderson, H roch, C alhoun and B illig. On the one hand, these alliances are used to sell their nationalism as a non‐ideological or non‐discursive project. On the other hand, the analyses of these intellectuals are used as manuals to ‘banalise’ a hot nationalism. The concept of ‘scientific’ nationalism refers to the entextualisation of scientific discourses in order to legitimate and banalise the nationalist project of the party as ‘in line with science’.