- Hugo Schiltz
Hugo Schiltz (
Borsbeek ,27 October 1927 -Antwerp ,5 August 2006 ) was a Belgianlawyer andpolitician . He was Belgian MP from 1965 to 1988 and senator from 1992 to 1995. He was also twice minister, from 1981 to 1985 in the first Flemish Government and between 1988 and 1991 in theBelgian federal government Martens VIII. He was further president of the Flemishpolitical party "Volksunie " between 1975 and 1979.He was one of the founders of
federalism in Belgium. After the dissolution of the "Volksunie", he chose the new party "Spirit".Career
During
World War II Schiltz was a member of the "Nationaal-Socialistische Jeugd Vlaanderen" (English: "National Socialist Youth Flanders"). This brought him in jail for some months after the war.He studied Law, Economic Science and Thomistic Philosophy at the
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven , where he became a member of theKatholiek Vlaams Hoogstudentenverbond (KVHV). In 1953 he became a lawyer and an economy teacher.In 1958, he was elected member of the
Antwerp municipal council, which he would remain until 1998.After a short period with the (then belgicist) CVP party, he became a member of the "Volksunie" in 1963. From 1975 to 1979 he was party president. During that time, he steered the party into a more left-liberal direction. He participated in drawing up the
Egmont pact , that in certain Flemish circles was seen as treason. The Belgian government didn't survive the disapproval of the pact in parliament.The new, more liberal direction of the Volksunie, and the cooperation in the Egmont pact were the reason for the creation by the more radical, right wing-conservative part of the Volksunie, of two new small parties, the "Vlaams Nationale Partij" ("Flemish National Party", VNP), presided by
Karel Dillen , and the "Vlaamse Volkspartij" ("Flemish Popular Party", VVP) with the former VU senatorLode Claes . Later, both parties merged into the "Vlaams Blok ".Together with
Wilfried Martens andJean-Luc Dehaene , Hugo Schiltz was at the basis of the reform ofBelgium into a federal state.From 1994 to 1998, Schiltz was alderman for finances in
Antwerp in an anti-Vlaams Blok coalition.In 1995 he received the honorary title of Minister of State from the Belgian king.
After the dissolution of the "Volksunie" into
N-VA and Spirit in 2001, Schiltz became a member of the latter. In that year, he resumed practising law, first withErnst & Young and "Peeters Advocaten", later he founded "Laurius-Schiltz-Verschoeven ADVC".Death
Hugo Schiltz died Saturday 5 August 2006 in Antwerp of
leukemia .References
"Much of the content of this article comes from the equivalent Dutch-language wikipedia article (retrieved 6 August 2006)."
External links
* [http://users.pandora.be/frankie.schram/tijd/bio/schiltz.html Biografie uit de Nieuwe Encyclopedie van de Vlaamse Beweging, © 2001] (Dutch)
* [http://lvb.net/item/1476 Uitspraken over de actie bij het IJzermonument in 1953] (Dutch)
* [http://lvb.net/item/3204 Hugo Schiltz, de Volksunie en het Egmontpact] (Dutch)
* [http://www.algemeennederlandsverbond.org/Neerlandia2006-4.htm "Afscheid van een prinselijk politicus, humanist en reformist" in Neerlandia, verenigingsblad van het] (Dutch)
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