Wilfried Martens
Wilfried Martens was prime minister of Belgium for nine governments between 1979 and 1992, thirteen years with a gap of nine months, the Flemish Christian Democrat who turned the unitary kingdom into a federal one in three rounds of constitutional reform, 1980, 1988 and 1993, that gave Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels their own parliaments and governments, and who ran the austerity of the 1980s, the devaluation of 1982 and the wage freeze that cut Belgium's deficit from thirteen per cent of output, with special powers the parliament voted him. He was also the man who founded the European People's Party in 1976 and presided over it from 1990 to his death, making it the largest group in the European Parliament. He was born in Sleidinge in East Flanders in 1936, a farmer's son, studied law at Leuven, was a Flemish nationalist student leader and a lawyer. He joined the Christian People's Party in 1965 as the leader of its Flemish wing, chairing the party from 1972 at thirty-six. The first government, of April 1979, was made and unmade on the Brussels question and the state reform of August 1980 that created the regions and communities. The fifth, of December 1981, with the Liberals, was the recovery programme, the eight per cent devaluation of February 1982 and the index cuts. He deployed the cruise missiles at Florennes in 1985 after a year of delay. He survived the Heysel stadium disaster and the Brabant killings, and fell in 1987 over the mayor of Voeren, a French-speaking man who would not learn Dutch, which was the Belgian question in a village. The eighth government with the Socialists made the reform of 1988 that gave the regions education and public works and a third of the budget. The ninth fell in 1991 over arms exports to the Gulf, and Dehaene took over in March 1992. He died in Lokeren in October 2013, and the party he built in Europe named its foundation for him.
- Lived: 1936 CE – 2013 CE
- Nationality: Belgian
- Roles: prime minister, politician
