Resigned March 3, 1979 Monarch Baudouin Role Belgian Politician | Name Paul Boeynants | |
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Party Centre democrate humaniste Similar Gaston Eyskens, Wilfried Martens, Leo Tindemans | ||
Paul vanden boeynants een premier van 63 miljoen
Paul Emile François Henri Vanden Boeynants ( [ˈpʌul vɑndɛn ˈbuinɑnts]; 22 May 1919 – 9 January 2001) was a Belgian politician. He served as the 41st Prime Minister of Belgium for two brief periods (1966–68 and 1978–79).
Contents
- Paul vanden boeynants een premier van 63 miljoen
- La conference de presse de paul vanden boeynants jt15 02 1989
- Career
- Fraud
- Kidnapping
- In popular culture
- Honours
- Literature
- References
La conference de presse de paul vanden boeynants jt15 02 1989
Career
Vanden Boeynants (called "VDB" by journalists) was born in Forest / Vorst, a municipality in the Brussels-Capital Region. Active as a businessman in the meat industry, he was a Representative for the PSC-CVP between 1949 and 1979. From 1961 to 1966 he led the Christian democrat PSC-CVP (which was in those days a single party). He led the CEPIC, its conservative fraction.
Vanden Boeynants served as minister for the middle class (1958-1961). In 1966, he became Prime Minister of Belgium; he stayed in this post for two years. From 1972-1979 he served as minister of defense. In 1978–1979 he led another Belgian government. Vanden Boeynants then served as chairman of the PSC (1979-1981). He left politics in 1995, and died of pneumonia after undergoing cardiovascular surgery in 2001.
One of his famous expressions, in a unique mixture of Dutch and French, was: Trop is te veel en te veel is trop. ("too many is too much and too much is too many").
Fraud
Convicted in 1986 for fraud and tax evasion, Vanden Boeynants escaped jail but was sentenced to three years' This prevented him from pursuing mayoral aspirations in Brussels. He underwent a political rehabilitation during the early 1990s.
Kidnapping
In a bizarre incident that is still the subject of dispute, Vanden Boeynants was kidnapped on 14 January 1989 by members of the Haemers criminal gang. Three days later, the criminals published a note in the leading Brussels newspaper Le Soir, demanding 30 million Belgian francs in ransom. Vanden Boeynants was released (physically unharmed) a month later, on 13 February, when an undisclosed ransom was paid to the perpetrators. Patrick Haemers, the head of the gang, later committed suicide in prison, whereas two members of his gang managed to escape from the St-Gillis Prison in 1993.
In popular culture
The kidnapping was referenced in a 1989 novelty song by the New Beat band Brussels Sound Revolution called Qui...?, which featured samples from the press conference Vandenboeynants gave after his kidnapping. It was a hit on both sides of the Belgian language border. In Flanders, Belgium it reached the 28th place in the Radio 2 hitparade at the time for one week.