Paul Vanden Boeynants

In this Dutch name, the surname is Vanden Boeynants, not Boeynants.

Paul Emile François Henri Vanden Boeynants (Dutch: [ˈpʌul vɑndə(m) ˈbuinɑnts] ^ⓘ, French: [pɔl vandən bujnants]; 22 May 1919 – 9 January 2001) was a Belgian politician.^[1] He served as the prime minister of Belgium for two brief periods (1966–68 and 1978–79).^[1]

Paul Vanden Boeynants
Vanden Boeynants in 1966
Prime Minister of Belgium
In office 20 October 1978 – 3 March 1979
Monarch	Baudouin
Preceded by	Leo Tindemans
Succeeded by	Wilfried Martens
In office 19 March 1966 – 17 June 1968
Monarch	Baudouin
Preceded by	Pierre Harmel
Succeeded by	Gaston Eyskens
Minister of Defense
In office 1972–1979
Prime Minister	Gaston Eyskens Edmond Leburton Leo Tindemans
Preceded by	Paul Willem Segers
Succeeded by	José Desmarets
Personal details
Born	(1919-05-22)22 May 1919 Forest, Belgium
Died	9 January 2001(2001-01-09) (aged 81) Aalst, Belgium
Political party	Christian Social Party Humanist Democratic Centre

Career

Vanden Boeynants (called "VDB" by journalists) was born in Forest / Vorst, a municipality now 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.

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 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").^[2]

Vanden Boeynants was part of the secretive conservative network Le Cercle.^[3]

Boeynants led a centre-left cabinet from 1966 to 1968 and another centre-left cabinet from 1978 to 1979. ^[4]

Fraud

Convicted in 1986 for fraud and tax evasion, Vanden Boeynants was given a suspended jail sentence of three years.^[2] This prevented him from pursuing mayoral aspirations in Brussels. He underwent a political rehabilitation during the early 1990s.

Kidnapping

In an incident that is still the subject of dispute, Vanden Boeynants was kidnapped on 14 January 1989 by members of the Haemers criminal gang.^[5] 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 unharmed a month later, on 13 February, when an undisclosed ransom was paid to the perpetrators. The gang members were caught and imprisoned. Patrick Haemers, the head of the gang, died from suicide in prison,^[6] and 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 Vanden Boeynants gave after his kidnapping.^[7][8][9] 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.^[10]

Marc Dutroux

Paul Vanden Boeynants was named as a pedophile implicated in the larger Dutroux-affair in the book Dossier pédophilie : le scandale de l'affaire Dutroux (2001). The claims made in the book triggered a defamation suit by the relatives of Vanden Boeynants.^[11]

Anneke Lucas

In 2023, Anneke Lucas, a child sex trafficking survivor, named Vanden Boeyants as a person who was in charge of a Belgian pedophile network in the early 1970’s. ^[12]

Honours

• Belgium: Minister of State, by Royal Decree.^[13]
• Grand Cordon in the Order of Leopold.^[13]
• Knight Grand Cross in the Order of Leopold II.^[13]
• Knight Grand Cross in the Order of Saints Michael and George.^[13]
• Grand Officer in the Legion of Honour.^[13]

Literature

• N. Hirson, Paul Vanden Boeynants, Brussels, 1969.
• Paul Debogne, Les Amis de Paul Vanden Boeynants et leurs Affaires, Ed. Vie Ouvrière, Brussel, 1970.
• R. Stuyck, Paul Vanden Boeynants, boeman of supermen?, Brussels, 1973.
• Els Cleemput & Alain Guillaume, La rançon d'une vie. Paul Vanden Boeynants 30 jours aux mains de Patrick Haemers, Brussels, 1990.
• D. Ilegems & J. Willems, De avonturen van VDB, Brussels, 1991.
• P. Havaux & P. Marlet, Sur la piste du crocodile, Brussels, 1994.
• Armand De Decker, In memoriam Paul Vanden Boeynants, Belgian Senate, 18 January 2001.