Paul-Henri Charles Spaak was an influential Belgian Socialist politician,diplomat and statesman who thrice served as the prime minister of Belgium and later as the second secretary general of NATO. Along with Robert Schuman,Alcide De Gasperi and Konrad Adenauer,he was a leader in the formation of the institutions that evolved into the European Union.
Gaston François Marie,Viscount Eyskens was a Christian democratic politician and prime minister of Belgium. He was also an economist and member of the Belgian Christian Social Party (CVP-PSC).
The Rex Popular Front,Rexist Party,or simply Rex,was a far-right Catholic authoritarian and corporatist political party active in Belgium from 1935 until 1945. The party was founded by a journalist,Léon Degrelle. It advocated Belgian unitarism and royalism. Initially,the party ran in both Flanders and Wallonia,but it never achieved much success outside Wallonia and Brussels. Its name was derived from the Roman Catholic journal and publishing company Christus Rex.
Leonard Clemence "Leo" Tindemans was a Belgian politician. He served as the prime minister of Belgium from 25 April 1974 until he resigned as minister on 20 October 1978. He was a member of the Christian Democratic and Flemish party.
Léon Joseph Marie Ignace Degrelle was a Belgian Walloon politician and Nazi collaborator. He rose to prominence in Belgium in the 1930s as the leader of the Rexist Party (Rex). During the German occupation of Belgium during World War II,he enlisted in the German army and fought in the Walloon Legion on the Eastern Front. After the collapse of the Nazi regime,Degrelle escaped and went into exile in Francoist Spain,where he remained a prominent figure in neo-Nazi politics.
The Walloon Legion was a unit of the German Army (Wehrmacht) and later of the Waffen-SS recruited among French-speaking collaborationists in German-occupied Belgium during World War II. It was formed in the aftermath of the German invasion of the Soviet Union and fought on the Eastern Front alongside similar formations from other parts of German-occupied Western Europe.
Étienne,Count Davignon is a Belgian former diplomat,top civil servant,businessman,and former vice-president of the European Commission.
Lucien Alphonse Joseph "José" Streel was a Belgian journalist and supporter of Rexism. Streel was an important figure in the early years of the movement,when he was the main political philosopher of Rexism as an ideology. He subsequently became less of a central figure following the German occupation of Belgium during World War II due to his lukewarm attitude towards working with Nazi Germany. Nevertheless,he was executed by Belgium after the war as a collaborator.
Jean V Charles,Count Snoy et d'Oppuers was a Belgian civil servant,diplomat and Christian Democratic politician of the PSC-CVP.
Gustave Charles Sap was a Belgian politician and minister for the Catholic Party. Sap was also professor at the Catholic University of Leuven. During his professional career,he was active in the Flemish movement,agriculture and business. In 1920,he married Antoinette Gylsen,daughter of the Antwerp shipowner Henry Gylsen,and together they had five daughters and one son. Gustave Sap was the father-in-law of AndréVlerick,Jan Piers and Albert De Smaele.
Jean Denis was a Belgian politician and writer. Through his written work he was the chief ideologue of the Rexist movement.
The royal question was a major political crisis in Belgium that lasted from 1945 to 1951,coming to a head between March and August 1950. The question at stake surrounded whether King Leopold III could return to the country and resume his constitutional role amid allegations that his actions during World War II had been contrary to the provisions of the Belgian Constitution. The crisis brought Belgium to the brink of a civil war. It was eventually resolved by the abdication of Leopold in favour of his son King Baudouin in 1951.
Despite being neutral at the start of World War II,Belgium and its colonial possessions found themselves at war after the country was invaded by German forces on 10 May 1940. After 18 days of fighting in which Belgian forces were pushed back into a small pocket in the north-west of the country,the Belgian military surrendered to the Germans,beginning an occupation that would endure until 1944. The surrender of 28 May was ordered by King Leopold III without the consultation of his government and sparked a political crisis after the war. Despite the capitulation,many Belgians managed to escape to the United Kingdom where they formed a government and army-in-exile on the Allied side.
General elections were held in Belgium on 24 May 1936. The result was a victory for the Belgian Labour Party,which won 70 of the 202 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 39 of the 101 seats in the Senate. Voter turnout was 94.7%.
The Courcelles massacre,sometimes known as the Rognac massacre,involved the killing of 27 civilians in a number of separate instances by a collaborationist militia associated with the Rexist Party in German-occupied Belgium during World War II. The killings occurred on 17–18 August 1944 near Courcelles,a suburb of the industrial city of Charleroi in Hainaut Province,shortly before the Liberation of Belgium in revenge for the killing of a Rexist official by the Belgian Resistance.
Marcel-Henri Jaspar,was a Belgian lawyer,politician,and later diplomat. He is best known for his unsuccessful attempt with Camille Huysmans and others to establish an unrecognised Belgian government in London in 1940 during World War II.
The German occupation of Belgium during World War II began on 28 May 1940,when the Belgian army surrendered to German forces,and lasted until Belgium's liberation by the Western Allies between September 1944 and February 1945. It was the second time in less than thirty years that Germany had occupied Belgium.
Events in the year 1936 in Belgium.
Events in the year 1941 in Belgium
Humanist Democratic Centre was a Christian democratic and centrist French-speaking political party in Belgium. The party originated in the split in 1972 of the unitary Christian Social Party (PSC-CVP) which had been the country's governing party for much of the post-war period. It continued to be called the Christian Social Party until 2002 when it was renamed the Humanist Democratic Centre. It was refounded as Les Engagés in 2022.
