Ernest Glinne

Ernest Glinne (born March 30, 1931 in Forchies-la-Marche , † August 10, 2009 in Courcelles ) was a Belgian politician and advocate of the " Walloon Movement". Glinne was active for a long time in the Parti Socialiste (PS) as a member of parliament ( Chamber of Deputies and European Parliament ) and from 1973 to 1974 as Minister for Employment and Labor. Later he distanced himself from the PS and first approached Ecolo and finally the Rassemblement Wallonie-France (RWF). At the local level, Ernest Glinne was the long-time mayor of Courcelles.

Life

Glinne was politically active at a young age. After successfully completing his political science studies at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in 1954 , he became active in the Belgian Socialist Party (PSB-BSP) (today sp.a and PS). At the same Glinne belongs together with personalities like Jacques Yerna , André Renard , Freddy Terwagne , Ernest Mandel or François Perin of the founders of the former left-wing newspaper La Gauche , which had the intention of the PSB to persuade the structural reform proposals of the socialist trade union FGTB to take over.

In 1961, Ernest Glinne made it into the Chamber of Deputies for the Socialists. This was not entirely unproblematic for him. During the great strike of the winter of 1960–1961 against the so-called “Unity Law”, in which he was nicknamed “Ernest le rebelle” because of his left-wing extremist convictions , Glinne, who was an ardent advocate of the Walloon cause and the regionalization of Belgium, affiliated with some other politicians to the Mouvement populaire wallon (MPW) founded by Renard . From 1964, however, membership of the MPW was banned within the socialist party (the ban was later lifted). Nor could you be a member of the party and an editor at La Gauche at the same time . Glinne was forced to make a decision and chose the PSB. There he argued further for the development of a Walloon autonomy.

His political work in Parliament - Glinne had put forward the first legislative proposal in 1971 to give certain foreigners the right to vote in Belgium; however, the proposal was not accepted - was rewarded in 1973 when he was appointed Minister for Employment and Labor under Prime Minister Edmond Leburton (PSB). In addition to the future of Wallonia, Ernest Glinne also developed an interest in international issues, so that he was a member of the European Parliament from 1968 and even took over the chairmanship of the social democratic group during the first electoral term (from 1979 to 1984) . He was a member of the European Parliament until 1994.

In 1981 Ernest Glinne aspired to the presidency of the PS, which had now separated from its Flemish counterpart (SP) under André Cools . However, the result of the election was extremely narrowly in favor of its competitor Guy Spitaels . From this point on, his relations with the party gradually deteriorated, not least because of the discussion about the controversial José Happart , whom the leadership of the PS wanted to place on the electoral list for the European Parliament in 1984, although he was not a member of the party. Because of Happart's role in the language dispute over the Flemish community of Voeren , this decision also caused tensions with the Flemish SP. The dispute between Ernest Glinne and the PS culminated in 1994 when the PS decided not to let Glinne stand on their lists. In 1998 Ernest Glinne officially resigned from the PS along with the political journalist Jean Guy .

At the age of almost 70, Ernest Glinne made a comeback with the green party Ecolo in the municipal council elections in 2000 . In his parish of Courcelles, in which he was mayor from 1965 to 1978 and a member of the parish college until 1994, he made it back to the local council.

In 2008, Ernest Glinne hit the headlines again when he announced that he was standing for the 2009 regional and European elections for the Rassemblement Wallonie-France (RWF) party under Paul-Henry Gendebien , who wanted Wallonia to break away from Belgium and an annexation by France will start. Glinne, who has always been a Republican , justified this step with the fact that he “no longer believes in the reasonableness of the Belgian state”. However, he could no longer fight for a new mandate.

Ernest Glinne died on August 10, 2009 in Courcelles.

Overview of political offices

• 1961–1980: Member of the Chamber of Deputies (partially prevented)
• 1965–1978: Mayor of Courcelles (partially prevented)
• 1968–1994: Member of the European Parliament (partially prevented)
• 1973–1974: Minister for Employment and Labor in the Leburton I and Leburton II Governments
• 1978–1994: First lay judge in Courcelles
• 1983–1984: Member of the Chamber of Deputies and the Council of the Walloon Region
• 2000–2009: Councilor in Courcelles

Web links

• Ernest Glinne's biography on the website of the Institut Jules Destrée
• Entry on Ernest Glinne in the Members' database of the European Parliament

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ernest Glinne's profile can be viewed on the official website of the European Parliament (accessed on May 21, 2010)
2. ↑ Excerpts from Ernest Glinne's speech, with which he justified his exit from the Ecolo parliamentary group, can be found on the official website ( memento of the original from August 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked . Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the RWF can be viewed (accessed on May 21, 2010) (French) 
3. ↑ Lalibre.be: Décès d'Ernest Glinne, ancien ministre de l'Emploi et du Travail (August 10, 2009) (French)