Paul van Zeeland
Encyclopedia
Paul Guillaume van Zeeland (11 November 1893 – 22 September 1973) was a Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 lawyer, economist, Catholic politician and statesman born in Soignies
Soignies
Soignies is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut.The municipality is composed of the Town of Soignies together with the villages of Casteau, Chaussée-Notre-Dame-Louvignies, Horrues, Neufvilles, Naast and Thieusies...

.

Van Zeeland was a professor of law and later director of the Institute of Economic Science at the Universite Catholique de Louvain
Université catholique de Louvain
The Université catholique de Louvain, sometimes known, especially in Belgium, as UCL, is Belgium's largest French-speaking university. It is located in Louvain-la-Neuve and in Brussels...

 (Leuven
Leuven
Leuven is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region, Belgium...

), and vice-governor of the National Bank of Belgium
National Bank of Belgium
The National Bank of Belgium has been the central bank of Belgium since 1850...

.

In March 1935, he became the Prime Minister of a government of national unity (a coalition comprising the three major parties: Catholics
Catholic Party (Belgium)
The first Catholic Party in Belgium was established in 1869 as the Confessional Catholic Party .-History:In 1852 a Union Constitutionelle et Conservatrice was founded in Ghent, in Leuven , and in Antwerp and Brussels in 1858, which were active only during elections...

, Liberals
Liberal Party (Belgium)
The Liberal Party was a Belgian political party that existed from 1846 until 1961, when it became the Party for Freedom and Progress, Partij voor Vrijheid en Vooruitgang/Parti de la Liberté et du Progrès or PVV-PLP, under the leadership of Omer Vanaudenhove.-History:The Liberal Party was founded...

 and Socialists
Belgian Labour Party
The Belgian Labour Party, called Belgische Werkliedenpartij in Dutch and Parti Ouvrier Belge in French, was the first socialist party in Belgium, founded in 1885.-History:...

). Given decree powers, he was able to abate the economic crisis the country was going through, by devaluing the currency and resorting to expansive bugdetary policies.

Van Zeeland's government resigned in the spring of 1936 due to the agitation of Rexism
Rexism
Rexism was a fascist political movement in the first half of the 20th century in Belgium.It was the ideology of the Rexist Party , officially called Rex, founded in 1930 by Léon Degrelle, a Walloon...

 (a Belgian fascist party), but he was able to start a new term (June 1936-November 1937). After proclaiming martial law, the government was able to suppress the Rexists.

The second Van Zeeland government carried through a progressive social reform programme, introducing the 40 h working week and measures against unemployment, which helped to ease the political tensions. Also during his second term, Belgium gave up its military alliance with France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and reverted to its traditional "neutrality" policy, now dubbed "policy of independence".

In 1939, Van Zeeland became president of the Committee on Refugees, established in London, and was made High Commissioner for the repatriation of displaced Belgians in 1944. In 1946, he was one of the founders of the European League for Economic Cooperation
European League for Economic Cooperation
The European League for Economic Cooperation is an intellectual pressure group on European economic cooperation...

.
After the war, he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in several Catholic governments between 1949 and 1954 and as economic advisor to the Belgian government and to the council of ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
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