was initiated after violent clashes with supporters of the Democratic Front of Francophones at a rally, leaving one man dead, who suffered a heart attack, and several other severely injured. The VMO chairman Bob Maes decided to disband the VMO to protect the members from further prosecution. Soon after this, Maes was elected senator for the Volksunie and started defending more moderate points of view. The new VMO Numerous members of the disbanded VMO did not support Maes' decision, and reconstituted the VMO on 12 June 1971 as "Vlaamse Militanten Orde", referring to the "Dinaso Militanten Orde". Several Flemish extremists, radicals, neo-fascists and racists were among the founding members, including the former Hitler Youth member Bert Eriksson, who emerged as leader of the new group. It undertook drilling exercises and paramilitary "fieldgames" and also co-operated with similar militia groups such as the Wehrsportsgruppe, exchanging members for drilling exercises. In 1974 it announced that it intended to take on an active role against leftists as well as its pro-Flemish independence agenda. When the far right was established in 1979, several VMO members also joined that party. Chief among these was Xavier Buisseret, who served as propaganda chief of the , having previously held high office in the VMO. The new VMO became associated with a series of attacks on immigrants, Walloons and leftists as well as the organisation of annual international neo-Nazi rallies at Diksmuide, where representatives of the League of Saint George and the National States' Rights Party were amongst those in attendance. These rallies had initially been for Flemish only but in the late 1960s the VMO began to invite other rightist groups to participate and they eventually became an important annual event in the international neo-Nazi calendar. Especially close to the League of Saint George, the two groups were part of a wider network that also included the Deutsche Bürgerinitiative in Germany, the NSDAP/AO in the United States and France's Fédération d'action nationale et européenne. The group also sought, albeit unsuccessfully, to forge links with Irish republican groups and to this end distributed leaflets in support of Bobby Sands during his 1981 hunger strike. However in a subsequent volte-face the VMO threw its lot in with Ulster loyalism and attempted to link up with the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). This came to nothing either however after the UVF rejected the VMO's request that they should target Jews, with