Frans Van der Elst

Frans Van der Elst (born March 13, 1920 in Neder-Over-Heembeek , Brussels , † August 29, 1997 ibid) was a Belgian politician . He was a member of both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate .

For 20 years from 1955 to 1975 he was party chairman of the Volksunie and also a member of the Culture Council or the Flemish Council of the Flemish Community that emerged from it . On December 2, 1983, he was awarded the honorary title of Minister of State .

Life

Frans Van der Elst, son of an insurance broker and a housewife, began to study law, political and social sciences and Thomistic philosophy at the Katholieke Universiteit after attending the Collège Sainte Marie in Schaerbeek / Schaarbeek and the Sint-Pieterscollege in Jette in 1939 Leuven , which he graduated in 1944. After his admission as a lawyer , he took up a position as a lawyer in Brussels in 1944 and represented, among others, the former chairman of the Flemish National Association , Hendrik Elias . In 1948 he began his political involvement in the Flemish Movement and as a representative of Flemish nationalism . He then got involved in the Algemeen-Nederlands Verbond (ANV) between 1948 and 1951 . In 1949 he ran unsuccessfully for the list of Edmond Van Dieren for a mandate in the Chamber of Deputies and was secretary of the General Flemish Former Students Association AVOH (Algemeen Vlaams Oud-Hoogstudentenverbond) between 1951 and 1958 .

After he was a member of the short-term Christelijke Vlaamse Volksunie (CVV) in 1954, he became a member of the Volksunie (VU) in 1954 . Just one year later, on November 12, 1955, he replaced Walter Couvreur as party chairman of VU and held this position for 20 years until he was replaced by Hugo Schiltz on November 21, 1975. On June 1, 1958, he became a member of VU for the first time the Chamber of Deputies and represented the interests of the Antwerp district until March 9, 1974 . At the same time he was from December 7, 1971 to November 7, 1981 a member of the Culture Council and the Flemish Council of the Flemish Community that emerged from it on October 20, 1980 .

Van der Elst was elected a member of the Senate in the Antwerp district on March 10, 1974 , and was then a co-opted senator from May 11, 1977 to October 12, 1985. He was also a deputy member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe between October 5, 1977 and January 1, 1986 . On December 2, 1983, he was awarded the honorary title of Minister of State . After leaving the Senate, he also became an honorary senator on October 13, 1985.

Web link

• Entry on the homepage of the Flemish Parliament

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Volksunie: party chairman