<P> The Dutch General Union was joined, at the end of World War I, by a considerable number of people in the Netherlands and Flanders . It also enjoyed some popularity among students, leading to the creation of the Diets Student Association . </P> <P> During World War II, both Belgium and the Netherlands were occupied by Nazi Germany . It was believed in nationalist circles that a Greater Dutch state could be created through collaboration with the German occupiers . The Nazis however did not value this idea, and desired either a Pan-Germanist fusion of the racially Germanic Dutch speakers with Germany or a New Order in which both Belgium and the Netherlands would continue to exist as notionally independent German satellite states . </P> <P> After the war, however, the Greater Dutch movement was stuck with the stigma of collaboration, notably the Flemish National Union (VNV) in Flanders and the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands . </P> <P> While less common after the war, proponents of a Greater Netherlands do exist on the far - right of Belgian and Dutch politics . </P>

Why is flanders not part of the netherlands