Paul-Henri Spaak

In the policy since more the young age

By his mother who was member of the Senate, he is the grandson of Paul Janson, the son of the sénatrice Marie Janson and the nephew of the former Prime Minister Paul-Emile Janson. His/her Paul father left an important literary work of which the play Kaatje . Paul-Henri Spaak was the brother of Charles Spaak scenario writer of Julien Duvivier and Jean Renoir.

Having tried into 1916 to cross the border Dutchwoman to join the Belgian army on Yser, Spaak was stopped and interned in Germany. After the war, it made its right to the Universit3e libre de Bruxelles. He was lawyer at the bar of Brussels.

The war, capitulation, the exile, the return

Chief-assistant of the cabinet of the Minister for Labor Joseph Wauters in 1925, it is elected appointed socialist of the district of Brussels to the Room of the Representatives in 1932, it is Minister for Transport and of the postal and telecommunications authorities in the cabinet of Paul van Zeeland of 1935 with 1936, he is Foreign Minister of June 13rd 1936 at February 9th 1939 in the government van Zeeland II and Prime Minister for the May 15th 1938 with the February 9th 1939.

It finds the wallet of the Foreign affairs in the government of Hubert Pierlot the September 3rd 1939, then in the government in exile of London of 1940 with 1944. He is again chief of the Belgian government in March 1946 then March 20th 1947 with the August 11th 1949, he cumulates this station with that of chief of the Belgian diplomacy. During the Royal Question, Paul-Henri Spaak is a partisan of the abdication of the king Léopold III. He is again Foreign Minister on March 23rd 1954 in the government of Achille van Acker then of April 25th 1961 with 1965, period during which he is Deputy Prime Minister for the government of Théo Lefèvre.

Belgian statesman on the international scene

It occupies of important functions on the international plan:

president of the General meeting of the the United Nations as of on January 10th 1946
president of the parliamentary Parliament of ECSC of 1952 with 1954
general secretary of NATO of May 16th 1957 at April 21st 1961.

A large European

Dominant figure of the Belgian Socialist party during thirty years, it is opposed to the return of the king Léopold III during the popular consultation of 1950 and is massively followed in the French-speaking part of the country. Paul-Henri Spaak signs with the baron Jean-Charles Snoy and of Oppuers the the Treaty of Rome the March 25th 1957. Its convictions internationalists and European were very strong. It defended the treaties of the Benelux, of NATO, the the Council of Europe, ECSC, CED, the EEC and Euratom. Its role in the revival of European integration to the Conférence of Messine in 1955 was determining. Grace its engagement in the European construction industry, Paul-Henri Spaak is regarded as one of the “Fathers of Europe”. A wing of the the European Parliament to Brussels bears its name besides.

A speaker of a rare eloquence

For its contemporaries, when they think " Spaak" , they hear before all its voice, its stentorian voice, because they cannot forget its eloquence. Powerful orator, Paul-Henri Spaak was one of the speakers most noticed among the Belgian politicians. He put his eloquence at the service of European construction (the Treaty of Rome, 1957), of the defense of the " World libre" , according to the vocabulary of the time (UNO, 1946 ; NATO, 1957-1961).

One will remember in particular his vigorous two hours speech to UNO in 1964, in answer to the virulent charge of the the USSR which condemned the Belgian airborne operation on Stanleyville (current Kisangani, Democratic republic of Congo) intended to help hundreds of Europeans and the Asian ones, taken as an hostage by the rebels Simba (of obedience Marxiste).

It published in 1969 Mémoires with the Fayard editions under the title unfinished Combats . The first volume is entitled Independence with Alliance and the second Of the hope to disappointments . He is the father of the Belgian political woman Antoinette Spaak and the paternal grandfather of the journalist and writer Isabelle Spaak.

Paul-Henri Spaak rests in the cemetery of Foriest with Braine-l' Alleud, commune of the the Walloon Brabant where it passed the end of his life. After its death, a Foundation Paul-Henri Spaak was created to perpetuate its work.

References

(to be supplemented)

Paul Hymans - Memories - Published by Frans van Kalken and John Bartier - Inst. of Sociology Solvay (ULB), Brussels, 1958,2 volumes, 1079 pp.
Patrick Nothomb: In Stanleyville, newspaper of a taking of hostage , Duculot, Paris, 1993.
Paul-F. Smets, the European and Atlantic Thought of Paul-Henri Spaak. 1942-1972 , two vol., J. Goermaere, 1980

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