Wilfried Martens

Wilfried Achiel Emma Martens (Dutch: [ˈʋɪlfrit ˈmɑrtə(n)s] (listen); 19 April 1936 – 9 October 2013) was a Flemish Belgian politician. He was born in Sleidinge (East Flanders). During his political career, Martens served as the Prime Minister of Belgium from 3 April 1979 to 6 April 1981 and 17 December 1981 to 7 March 1992.

Wilfried Martens
President of the European People's Party
In office
16 July 1990 – 9 October 2013
Preceded byJacques Santer
Succeeded byJoseph Daul
44th Prime Minister of Belgium
In office
17 December 1981 – 7 March 1992
MonarchBaudouin
Preceded byMark Eyskens
Succeeded byJean-Luc Dehaene
In office
3 April 1979 – 31 March 1981
MonarchBaudouin
Preceded byPaul Vanden Boeynants
Succeeded byMark Eyskens
Leader of the European People's Party-European Democrats
In office
20 July 1994 – 20 July 1999
Preceded byLeo Tindemans
Succeeded byHans-Gert Pöttering
Personal details
Born
Wilfried Achiel Emma Martens

(1936-04-19)19 April 1936
Sleidinge, Belgium
Died9 October 2013(2013-10-09) (aged 77)
Lokeren, Belgium
Political partyChristian Democratic and Flemish
Spouse(s)
Lieve Verschroeven
​
(
m. 1962; div. 1997)

Ilse Schouteden
​
(
m. 1998; div. 2007)

​
(
m. 2008; died 2013)
Children5
Alma materCatholic University of Leuven
Harvard University
WebsiteOfficial website

Political career

Martens was a Chair of the Belgian Christian People's Party (now renamed Christian Democratic and Flemish party, CD&V) from 1972 to 1979, sitting as a Deputy in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives (federal parliament) from 1974 to 1991, and serving as a Senator from 1991 to 1994.

Wilfried Martens served as Prime Minister in nine coalition governments (Martens I-IX) from 3 April 1979 to 6 April 1981 and 17 December 1981 to 7 March 1992. His period in office was dominated by the economic crisis of the 1980s and the state reforms of 1980 and 1988 which set Belgium on a path to federalism.

He co-founded the European People's Party (EPP) in 1976 and was EPP President from 1992 until his death.

Poster calling for civil disobedience against the Martens government

From 1993 he was President of the European Union of Christian Democrats (EUCD), until its merger with the EPP in 1996. Martens also negotiated with Finnish conservative politician Sauli Niinistö the merger of the European Democrat Union (EDU) into the EPP (formally concluded in 2002). The successful fusion of all centre-right European organisations into the EPP – currently the largest transnational European political party with 75 member-parties from 40 countries – is widely recognised as an important achievement of his European political legacy.

From 1994 to 1998, he was a Member of the European Parliament, chairing the EPP Group.

From October 2000 to November 2001 he was also the President of the Christian Democrat International (CDI).

He re-appeared on the Belgian political stage on 22 December 2008 to help in the 2007–2011 Belgian political crisis.

Martens held a doctorate in law, a degree in notarial studies, as well as a baccalaureate in Thomistic philosophy from the Catholic University of Louvain. He also studied international political science at Harvard University. He has practised law at the Ghent court of appeal.

Among numerous national and international distinctions, he was honoured in 1998 with the Charles V European Award for his contribution to European Union.

Private life

Martens had five children: two from his first marriage with Lieve Verschroeven (Kris and Anne) and three with Ilse Schouteden (Sarah, Sophie and Simon). After the birth of their twins in 1997 they married on 13 November 1998. Ilse Schouteden has a son from her previous marriage. In 2007 he divorced his second wife. On 27 September 2008 he married Miet Smet, a former Belgian minister. It was his third marriage and her first. After the death of his first wife, Martens was able to celebrate the marriage to Miet Smet in the Catholic Church, on 27 April 2013.

Death and tributes
Wilfried Martens (center) with Jean-Luc Dehaene (left) at a European People's Party (EPP) meeting in 2005

Martens died of cancer on 9 October 2013, via euthanasia[1], at his home in Lokeren; he was 77.[2][3] Elio Di Rupo, the Belgian prime minister, described him as a "true statesman and one of the fathers of federal Belgium".[3] Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, paid tribute to him as a "statesman of Belgium, Europe and an outstanding leader of European Parliament".[3] Jerzy Buzek, EPP MEP and former prime minister of Poland, described him as "irreplaceable".[3]

The EPP think tank Centre for European Studies has been renamed after him, now being the "Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies", a decision taken during the EPP Congress in Dublin held on 9 March 2014.[4]

He received an Official State funeral, which was attended by a Royal Aide-de-Camp of King Philippe, he was buried in the Cemetery of Campo Santo.

Honours

Foreign honours
gollark: Alternatively, *That's The Spirit*, a *Bring Me The Horizon* album.
gollark: Text to speech.
gollark: Run the Linux source code through TTS and play it as you sleep.
gollark: Contribute to my projects! I have tons of unfinished ones!
gollark: They're quite rare and are patched rapidly; you can be reasonably confident webpages will not hackerize your computer. It's much more secure than "ahh yes I will write this program directly to the boot sector".

See also

Publications
On 10 September 2009, Wilfried Martens presented his book Europe: I Struggle, I Overcome in a public event organized by the Centre for European Studies (CES), the official think-tank of the European People's Party.
  • Een gegeven woord, Lannoo, Tielt, 1985.
  • Europa voorbij Oost en West, Lannoo, Tielt, 1995.
  • De Memoires, Luctor et Emergo, Lannoo, Tielt, 2006.
  • Europe: I Struggle, I Overcome, Springer Science+Business Media, 2009.[15]

References
  1. InKe. "Wilfried Martens koos voor euthanasie: "Hij was op het einde van zijn leven"".
  2. "Oud-premier Wilfried Martens is overleden". De Redactie. 10 October 2013. Retrieved 10 October 2013.
  3. "Belgian statesman Wilfried Martens dies aged 77". BBC News. 10 October 2013. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  4. "Centre for European Studies renamed in honour of its founder Wilfried Martens". 10 March 2014. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
  5. "Wilfried Martens. Deel 2". search.arch.be.
  6. "Wilfried Martens. Deel 2". search.arch.be.
  7. "MARTENS". www.ars-moriendi.be.
  8. "Wilfried Martens. Deel 2".
  9. "Martens, Wilfried". Falkadb.forseti.is. 16 October 1979. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  10. "Presidenza della Repubblica". Quirinale.it. 20 February 1986. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  11. "Wilfried Martens. Deel 2". search.arch.be.
  12. "CIDADÃOS ESTRANGEIROS AGRACIADOS COM ORDENS PORTUGUESAS - Página Oficial das Ordens Honoríficas Portuguesas". Ordens.presidencia.pt. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  13. "Wilfried Martens. Deel 2".
  14. "Wilfried Martens. Deel 2".
  15. Europe: I Struggle, I Overcome: Wilfried Martens: 9783540892885: Amazon.com: Books. 28 August 2009. ISBN 978-3540892885.

Further reading
  • Wilsford, David, ed. Political leaders of contemporary Western Europe: a biographical dictionary (Greenwood, 1995) pp. 306–13.
Political offices
Preceded by
Paul Vanden Boeynants		 Prime Minister of Belgium
1979–1981		 Succeeded by
Mark Eyskens
Preceded by
Mark Eyskens		 Prime Minister of Belgium
1981–1992		 Succeeded by
Jean-Luc Dehaene
Party political offices
Preceded by
Robert Vandekerckhove		 President of the Christian People's Party (CVP)
1972–1979		 Succeeded by
Leo Tindemans
Preceded by
Jacques Santer		 President of the European People's Party
1992–2013		 Succeeded by
Joseph Daul
Preceded by
Leo Tindemans		 Leader of the European People's Party-European Democrats
1994–1999		 Succeeded by
Hans-Gert Pöttering
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