Wilfried Martens

Wilfried Martens (2005)

Wilfried Achiel Emma Martens listen ^{? / i} (born April 19, 1936 in Sleidinge ; † October 9, 2013 in Lokeren ) was a Belgian politician ( CD&V ). He was Prime Minister of his country and President of the European People's Party .

Life

Wilfried Martens grew up with four siblings in Sleidinge in East Flanders in simple circumstances. His father died in 1943 and his mother was left alone with five children under difficult circumstances. Thanks to a gifted scholarship, he was able to study at the Sint-Vincentiuscollege in Eeklo from 1949 .

In 2006, Katrien Van Dyck pointed out in a portrait of Wilfried Martens that he was convinced from an early age that a federal structure was the best solution for Flanders and Belgium. When Martens formulated his political ideas in an exam speech in the subject of rhetoric at the Vincentius College, his teacher praised him for the beautiful speech, but rejected his political idea of ​​federalism as wrong.

The negative attitude of his rhetoric teacher in Eeklo indicates that such ideas were viewed as almost subversive and revolutionary in Belgium, which was oriented towards the unified state. Martens, however, was not deterred.

At the Sint-Vincentius College in Eeklo he came into contact with people from the Flemish Movement . Martens later emphasized that up until then no one in his family had ever been interested or even engaged in "flaming" affairs. Because he was convinced of the federal idea, he founded a so-called ABN core in college . ABN is the abbreviation for Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands , the name used at the time for the standard Dutch language. Wilfried Martens saw it as a basic requirement for an independent Flanders in a federal state that the Flemish side had to have a better and more in-depth knowledge of the Dutch language. Due to the strong Frenchization of the teaching system and administration, there were deficits in this direction at that time.

In 1955 Wilfried Martens went to Leuven to study law at the Catholic University there. There he continued to be involved in the Flemish Movement, including for the acceptance of the Dutch language at the 1958 World Exhibition in Brussels.

Wilfried Martens received his doctorate in law in 1960 and acquired the notary's license and the baccalaureate in Thomistic philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven. During his studies he was also the local president of the Katholiek Vlaams Hoogstudenten Verbond .

From 1960 Martens worked as a lawyer at the Ghent Court of Appeal .

From 1960 to 1964 Martens was a board member of the Flemish People's Movement (VVB), which was co-founded by Maurits Coppieters . At the VVB Congress on February 4, 1962, Martens advocated the creation of a federal state of Belgium. However, he was aware that a broader social grouping would be necessary for the realization of his ideas. Consequently, Martens joined the Christelijke Volkspartij (CVP) in 1965 . In the same year he was appointed advisor in the cabinet of Prime Minister Pierre Harmel and in 1966 as advisor in the cabinet of Prime Minister Paul Vanden Boeynants . In 1968 he became special envoy in the cabinet of Minister Leo Tindemans , who was responsible for community affairs.

In 1968 he took part in an international seminar at Harvard University .

Wilfried Martens was a member of the Christelijke Volkspartij (CVP; predecessor of the CD&V ) in the Belgian Chamber of Deputies from 1974 to 1991 and a senator from 1991 to 1994 . From 1979 to March 1992, with an eight-month hiatus in 1981, Martens was Prime Minister of Belgium in nine governments. In the 1980s, Belgium suffered from a national and financial crisis: the annual national deficit was 13% and the national debt exceeded the annual gross national product . The government coalitions only lasted an average of 6 months. The Martens 5 government and the following government fought the crisis by imposing a strict budget, devaluing the Belgian currency , and removing the automatic adjustment of salaries to inflation . In 1990, relying on his conscience, he refused to sign a law that would have facilitated abortion .

Together with Jean-Luc Dehaene and Hugo Schiltz , Martens was the driving force behind the reforms of 1988 and 1989, which were aimed at transforming the Belgian state into a federal state and transferring competencies from the headquarters to the three regions and the municipalities.

Martens announced his resignation as Prime Minister three and a half months after the November 24, 1991 general election, in which both the ruling Christian Democrats and the Socialists suffered losses. On March 7, 1992, Jean-Luc Dehaene replaced him as head of government.

European politics

Martens was one of the founding members of the European People's Party (EPP) in the European Parliament and President of the EPP Program Commission from 1976 to 1977. Since May 10, 1990 he was the President of the EPP. From 1993 to 1996 he was the President of the European Union of Christian Democrats (EUCD). On April 4, 2013, Martens, seriously ill, asked Joseph Daul to take over the chairmanship of the EPP.

In 1994 Martens became a member of the European Parliament and President of the EPP Group (until 1999). For political reasons, Martens decided not to run for the European Parliament again.

From 2000 to 2001 Wilfried Martens was President of the International Christian Democrats and People's Parties (CDI).

family

Martens was married three times. He lived with his first wife Lieve Verschroeven (1937–2013) for 30 years and had two children with her. After the separation, he married Ilse Schouteden in 1998, who had already given birth to twins by him in 1997. In 2007, the two separated and Martens married a year later Miet Smet , a CD&V politician and former colleague.

Awards

• 1979: Grand Cross of the Order of the Falcons
• 1980: Grand Cross of the Order de Isabel la Católica
• 1986: Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
• 1987: Grand Cross of the Order of Infante Dom Henrique
• 1998: European Prize Charles V from the European Academy of Yuste in Spain
• 2000: Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold II.
• 2010: Grand Leopold Kunschak Prize
• Orders of various European, African and Central American states
• A building in Brussels (Rue Belliard 80) belonging to the European Parliament and completed in 2016 was named after Wilfried Martens.

Web links

Commons : Wilfried Martens  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Wilfried Martens in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry on Wilfried Martens in the Members' database of the European Parliament
• Obituary to hln.be from October 10, 2013 (Dutch)
• Britannica (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Peter De Backer: Ik wilde zo graag dat hij nog wat van het leven had geprofiteerd , De Standaard , October 10, 2013, accessed on October 19, 2013.
2. ↑ " Wanneer in 1943 zijn vader sterft, blijft zijn moeder met vijf jonge kinderen achter. " ( Memento of the original from 19 October 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 48 kB) Politiek portrait Wilfried Martens. 
3. ↑ " Al tijdens zijn jeugd is Martens ervan overtuigd dat een federale structuur de beste oplossing voor zowel Vlaanderen als België is. " ( Memento of the original from October 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 48 kB) Politiek portrait Wilfried Martens. 
4. ↑ Nobody from our family is ooit actief geweest in de Vlaamse Bewegungs ( Memento of the original from October 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 48 kB) Politiek portrait Wilfried Martens. 
5. ^ ^{A b c} Jean-Pierre Stroobants: Wilfried Martens. Le Monde , October 12, 2013, p. 17.
6. ^ Bernard A. Cook: Europe Since 1945: An Encyclopedia . Routledge, London 2013. ISBN 978-0-815-31336-6 , p. 285.