Achille Van Acker

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Achille Van Acker, 1956

Listen to Achille Honoré Van Acker ? / i (born April 8, 1898 in Bruges , † July 10, 1975 ibid) was a Belgian socialist politician and prime minister. Audio file / audio sample

Life

Family, promotion to minister, and World War II

Van Acker grew up in a simple working-class family with eleven siblings. As a six year old he had to help his father with basket weaving. After he had to leave school at the age of ten, he later attended evening school. In 1929 he joined the Masonic Lodge “La Flandre” in Brugge.

At a young age he came into contact with the socialist labor movement and soon afterwards joined the Labor Party (BWP), which was renamed the Socialist Party (PSB) in 1945. In 1926 he was elected to the Brugge City Council as a representative of the BWP and in November 1927 a member of the Chamber of Deputies. At times he was also Mayor of Bruges.

After the Wehrmacht invaded Belgium in 1940, from 1941 onwards he increasingly took on tasks to reorganize the BWP, which had been dissolved by its chairman Hendrik de Man . Together with the later mayor of Ghent and minister Edward Anseele jr. and others, he founded illegal party offices in Flanders and, from March 1942, in Brussels and Wallonia .

After the return of Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot's government in exile on September 8, 1944, Van Acker became Minister of Labor and Social Welfare. At the party congress in June 1945 he was one of the founding members of the PSB.

Three times Prime Minister and Speaker of Parliament

After the end of the Second World War , Van Acker embarked on an impressive political career, during which he became Prime Minister three times and later long-standing President of Parliament.

On February 12, 1945, he succeeded Pierlot for the first time as Prime Minister and until March 13, 1946 formed two governments with different occupations. During this time he was also Minister for Coal (1945–1946). After an interim government of only 18 days by Prime Minister Paul-Henri Spaak , he became Prime Minister again on March 31, 1946. In his cabinet, which was in office until August 3, 1946, he was again Minister for Coal and at the same time Minister for Labor and Social Security with special responsibility for the coordination of economic policy. Because of his coal policy he was nicknamed “Achille-Charbon” (coal-achille). Like his previous government, Van Acker had to do this because of the unresolved “king's question” about King Leopold III. step back.

In Spaak's third cabinet he was Minister of Transport from March 20, 1947 to August 11, 1949.

On April 23, 1954, he was elected Prime Minister for the third time to succeed Jean Van Houtte . In this office he remained until his replacement by Gaston Eyskens on June 26, 1958. During this reign, several social laws were enacted in cooperation with the then Minister for Public Health and Families Edmond Leburton . Van Acker went down in Belgian history as the “father of social security”.

On December 23, 1958, he was given the honorary title of " Minister of State ". On April 27, 1961 he was elected President of the Chamber of Deputies. He stayed in this office until March 10, 1974. In this office, too, Van Acker campaigned for the unity of Belgium and the protection of pensioners and workers.

Awards

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Background literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Van Acker, Achille
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Acker, Achille Honoré Van (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian Prime Minister
DATE OF BIRTH April 8, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Bruges
DATE OF DEATH July 10, 1975
Place of death Bruges