Jos Wijninckx

Jozef Constant Jeanne (Jos of Joz) Wijninckx (born June 26, 1931 in Deurne , Antwerp , † February 27, 2009 ) was a Belgian politician .

biography

Wijninckx, who was a social worker by profession , began his political career as an active member of the Young Socialists (Jong Socialisten) of the Socialist Partij Anders (BSP). In 1964 he was elected as a candidate of the BSP for a member of the council of the then still independent community Hoboken and belonged to this until 1992. At the same time he was Schepen of the city from 1964 to 1982 . As such, he advocated Hoboken as the first city in Flanders to begin planning cable television in 1969 . At the same time, he campaigned in 1971 for the establishment of the working group for inter-municipal cooperation between the municipalities of Antwerp (Integan) and was its chairman until 1995.

After the municipal reorganization and the merger of Hoboken with Antwerp in 1983, he became a member of the Antwerp City Council and was also chairman of the Hoboken District Council between 1983 and 1989.

In 1971 Wijninckx was elected a member of the Senate for the BSP , of which he was a member until 1990.

In 1977 he was appointed minister for pensions by Prime Minister Leo Tindemans in his cabinet and kept this office under Tindeman's successor Paul Vanden Boeynant until the end of his term on April 3, 1979. During this time he advocated an increase in lower pensions and lowering higher government pensions.

In the Senate he was from June 19, 1980 to July 10, 1981 chairman of a commission to investigate the abuse of power in the then gendarmerie (Rijkswacht) because of the increasing presence of extreme right-wing militias and the rumors of paid police services. This so-called “Commissie Wijninckx” also formed the basis for the formation and work of later investigative commissions, such as those relating to the cases of the Nijvel gang and the case of Marc Dutroux .

Even after retiring from active politics, he continued to exert influence in the politics of Antwerp and Flanders and, after the local elections in 2000, together with the former liberal governor of Antwerp, Andries Kinsbergen , played a key role in the formation of a coalition of socialists and liberals and others Antwerp involved in order to prevent the formation of a city government by the nationalist Vlaams Blok , which was then the strongest party after the city council elections.

Wijninckx, who was a member of the Masonic Lodge "Les Elèves de Thémis", died of complications from a heart condition that he had suffered from for years.

Web links

• DE MORGEN: "Ex-minister Jos Wijninckx (sp.a) overleden" (February 27, 2009)