Ward Beysen

Edouard "Ward" Marie August Beysen (born June 26, 1941 in Mortsel , Antwerp , Belgium , † January 14, 2005 in Wilrijk , Antwerp) was a Belgian politician .

biography

After attending school, he completed a teacher training course in Dutch and history at the Rijksnormaalschool in Lier , graduating in 1963.

Beysen began his political career as a member of the Partij voor Vrijheid en Vooruitgang (PVV), initially in local politics and was first elected a member of the Antwerp City Council in 1974 , to which he was a member until 1981.

He was then a member of the Flemish Parliament (Vlaams Parlement) from 1981 to 1995 . From February to October 1988 he was also the Interior Minister of Flanders for a short time in the government of Prime Minister Gaston Geens .

Between 1981 and 1995 Beysen, who was called "Zwartje Beysen" (Black Beysen) because of his right-wing politics , was a member of the Belgian Chamber of Deputies (De Belgische Kamer van volksvertegenwoordigers) . There he was parliamentary group leader of his party from 1985 to 1995 .

Between 1989 and 2000 he was again a member of the Antwerp City Council.

In 1999 he was elected as a candidate for the PVV, now renamed Vlaamse Liberalen en Democrats (VLD), to be a member of the 5th European Parliament , to which he belonged until the end of the 2004 legislative period. In 2003 he resigned from the VLD to form his own political group, the Liberal Appell (Liberaal Appèl), which tried to move closer to the far-right Flemish parties. In the subsequent elections to the Antwerp City Council in 2003, however, his party only achieved 1.21 percent and no seat in the city parliament. The Liberal Appeal did not appear in the regional elections that followed.

On January 15, 2005, his body was found in a pond near Antwerp. Apparently Beysen had suicide committed.

Web links

• rulers.org
• Entry on Ward Beysen in the Members' database of the European Parliament