Dries Van Langenhove

Van Langenhove was born in Dendermonde and grew up in Opwijk. He initially began training as a plumber but later began studying law at Ghent University.[1][2]

Van Langenhove was active in the Conservative and Flemish nationalist student fraternity Katholiek Vlaams Hoogstudentenverbond. When a lecture by State Secretary Theo Francken at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel was cancelled in 2017 after left-wing protesters disrupted the event, Van Langenhove mobilized supporters from an internet group to organize further Francken events.[3] Until August 2017 he wrote about migration and integration for the conservative website SCEPTR .[4] Along with Vlaams Belang Jongeren and the NSV he helped to organise a demonstration in Brussels against the UN Global Compact on Migration. In 2018, he also led a counter-demonstration alongside YouTube commentator Lauren Southern against pro-immigration activists at Gravensteen castle. In 2019, Van Langenhove announced he was to stand as an independent MP for the Chamber of Representatives in the 2019 Federal election, and it was later confirmed by Tom Van Grieken that he would run for the Vlaams Belang party (despite not being a full member) and head the VB's list in the Flemish Brabant region. He was elected to the Chamber with 39,295 preference votes.[5][6]

In 2017, Van Langenhove set up a youth movement called Shield & Friends which participated in a number of political demonstrations. An investigation by Belgian TV show Pano and journalist Tim Verheyden found that members of the group were sharing racist, antisemitic and sexist content and memes on secret Facebook and Discord groups. In these groups Verheyden also encountered posts promoting violence as well as references to Nazi Germany.[7] The group was also investigated under potential breaches of the 1981 anti-racism law.[8] As a result of the investigation Van Langenhove, who denied involvement in sharing content in any of the groups, was temporarily suspended as a student by the university of Ghent.[1]

On the twenty first of January 2021 the public prosecutor's office asked partliament to lift the parliamentary immunity of Van Langenhove because of an investigation into breaching of the anti-racism law, the Belgian Holocaust denial law and weapon law.[9] This is a result of an investigation around Van Langenhove that started during the Pano documentary.