As the European Commission points out the
failure of Belgium to respect the right to asylum — a failure shared by many other EU member states at the moment — Bart De Wever, the president of the nationalist party New Flemish Alliance (NVA),
said he would like to see changes made to the Geneva Convention, which ensures the protection of victims of armed conflict. His party is losing voters to the xenophobic party Vlaams Belang, so De Wever has decided to radicalize his speech in an effort to appeal to the far-right base.