Victor Larock

Victor Larock ( born October 6, 1904 in Ans, † April 24, 1977 in Madrid) was a Belgian socialist politician and 1958, the first president of the Council of the European Communities.

Life

Studies and professional activities

The son of a miner in 1926 received his doctorate after studying philosophy at the State University of Liege to the doctor of literature. He then completed a degree in sociology in Paris, where he first came into contact with the left -wing intellectuals. From 1932 to 1949 he was a lecturer in history at the Royal Athaneum of Ixelles / Elsene, and at the same time at the Institut des Hautes Études of Ghent.

Political journalist and climb to the Minister

From 1935 to 1940 he was editor of several left-wing magazines. Even after the occupation of Belgium by the German Wehrmacht in 1940 and a temporary arrest in 1941, he continued that activity. After the banning of the newspaper " Le Peuple " In 1942 he joined the staff in the forbidden office of the Socialist Party (BSP ). From 1944 to 1954 he was political director of the newspaper of the Socialist Party, " Le Peuple ".

At the first congress of the BSP after the Second World War in 1945 Larock played a leading role and was elected a member of the National Office.

In 1949 he was elected to Brussels as a member of the Chamber of Deputies and spoke in this position in a parliamentary debate in 1950 against the return of King Leopold III. from. In addition, he was from 1952 to 1968 Member of the town of Ixelles.

1951 sat Larock one for the new constitution of the Socialist International. After the founding congress in Frankfurt on 30 June 1951 he was elected to the Executive Board until 1954.

Larock was on 23 April 1954, first Minister of Foreign Trade and then as a successor to the selected NATO Secretary-General Paul -Henri Spaak on May 13, 1957 to June 26, 1958 Minister of Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of Achille Van Acker. As such, he was in the first half of 1958, the first president of the Council of the European Communities.

On April 25, 1961 he was Minister of National Education and Culture in the Cabinet of Théo Lefèvre. In this office he was the first socialist, after the adoption of a new education law. However, the Flemish politician Renaat Van Elslande he was attached to as a minister. This 1962 self- Minister for Dutch culture and continue to Deputy Minister of National Education. On July 31, 1963 Larock resigned as minister in protest against the language law of the socialist Minister of Internal Affairs and Special Task Arthur Gilson.

Between 1965 and 1968 he was Chairman of the Group of GNP in the Chamber of Deputies in 1964 and short-term President of the Socialist International. In 1971, he did not campaign for the Chamber of Deputies.