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Willy Claes
Willem Werner Hubert "Willy" Claes (; born 24 November 1938) is a Belgian politician who served as the eighth Secretary General of NATO, from 1994 to 1995. Claes was forced to resign from his NATO position after he was found guilty of corruption, which was uncovered during the investigation into André Cools' death. Claes was a member of the Flemish Socialist Party. Claes was born in Hasselt, Belgium. He graduated in political and diplomatic sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Political career Claes began his political career in the Hasselt city council. In 1968, he was elected to the national parliament. In 1972, he entered the cabinet for the first time as minister of education. Between 1973 and 1992, he was minister of economic affairs of Belgium three separate times. He also served as deputy prime minister five times, and was an important negotiator in the formation of coalition governments during the 1980s. Claes was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 199 ...
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Secretary General Of NATO
The secretary general of NATO is the chief civil servant of the NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), an intergovernmental military alliance with 32 member states. The officeholder is an international diplomat responsible for coordinating the workings of the alliance, leading NATO's international staff, chairing the meetings of the North Atlantic Council and most major committees of the alliance, with the notable exception of the NATO Military Committee, as well as acting as NATO's spokesperson. The secretary general does not have a military command role; political, military and strategic decisions ultimately rest with the Member states of NATO, member states. Together with the Chair of the NATO Military Committee, chair of the NATO Military Committee and the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, supreme allied commander, the officeholder is one of the foremost officials of NATO. The current secretary general is former Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte, who took office on 1&nb ...
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Flemish Socialist Party
Vooruit (, Dutch for Forward) is a Flemish social democratic political party in Belgium. It was formerly known as the (Flemish) Socialist Party (1978–2001: ''Socialistische Partij'', SP; 2001–2021: ''Socialistische Partij Anders'' , , SP.A) until 21 March 2021, when its current name was adopted. The party was founded following the linguistic split of the unitary Belgian Socialist Party in 1978, which also produced the Francophone Socialist Party. The Belgian Socialist Party itself consisted of former members of the Belgian Labour Party. From December 2011 to September 2014, the party was part of the Di Rupo Government, along with its Francophone counterpart. In 2020, it re-entered federal government as part of the De Croo Government. The party has been a part of the Flemish Government several times. History 1885–1940 1940–1978 Since 1978 The party was the big winner in the 2003 election, running on the SP.A–Spirit joint list (cartel) with the socia ...
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Belgian Male Conductors (music)
Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language formerly spoken in Gallia Belgica *Belgian Dutch or Flemish, a variant of Dutch *Belgian French, a variant of French *Belgian horse (other), various breeds of horse *Belgian waffle, in culinary contexts * SS ''Belgian'', a cargo ship in service with F Leyland & Co Ltd from 1919 to 1934 *''The Belgian'', a 1917 American silent film See also * *Belgica (other) *Belgic (other) Belgic may refer to: * an adjective referring to the Belgae, an ancient confederation of Celto-Germanic tribes * a rarer adjective referring to the Low Countries or to Belgium * , several ships with the name * Belgic ware, a type of pottery * Bel ...
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1938 Births
Events January * January 1 – state-owned enterprise, State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France (SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS). * January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Safinaz Zulficar, who becomes Farida of Egypt, Queen Farida, in Cairo. * January 27 – The Honeymoon Bridge (Niagara Falls), Honeymoon Bridge at Niagara Falls, New York, collapses as a result of an ice jam. February * February 4 ** Adolf Hitler abolishes the War Ministry and creates the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (High Command of the Armed Forces), giving him direct control of the German military. In addition, he dismisses political and military leaders considered unsympathetic to his philosophy or policies. General Werner von Fritsch is forced to resign as Commander of Chief of the German Army following accusations of homosexuality, and replaced by General Walther von Brauchitsch. Foreign Minister Baron Konstantin von Neurath is dismi ...
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List Of Foreign Ministers Of Belgium
The following is a list of those who have served as foreign ministers of Belgium. 1800s 1900s 2000s Timeline ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:12 PlotArea = top:10 bottom:50 right:130 left:20 AlignBars = late DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:1830 till:2025 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:10 start:1830 Colors = id:liberal value:rgb(0,0,1) legend: Liberal id:liberal_acting value:rgb(0.68,0.85,0.9) legend: Liberal(Acting) id:catholic value:rgb(1,0.6,0) legend: Catholic id:socialist value:rgb(1,0,0) legend: Socialist Legend = columns:4 left:150 top:24 columnwidth:100 TextData = pos:(20,27) textcolor:black fontsize:M text:"Political party:" BarData = barset:PM PlotData= width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5,-4) anchor:till barset:PM from: 1831 till: 1831 color:liberal text:"Sylvain Van de Weyer" fontsize:10 from: 1831 till: 1831 color:liberal text:" Joseph Lebeau" fontsize:10 from: 1831 till: 1831 color:catholic t ...
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Order Of Leopold II
The Order of Leopold II is an order of Belgium and is named in honor of King Leopold II. The decoration was established on 24 August 1900 by Leopold II as Sovereign of the Congo Free State and was in 1908, upon Congo being handed over to Belgium, incorporated into the Belgian awards system. The order is awarded for meritorious service to the sovereign of Belgium, and as a token of his personal goodwill. It can be awarded to both Belgians and foreigners, and is seen as diplomatic gift of merit. The order has become a long service order for people in the civil service and is awarded alternatively with the Order of the Crown, as the Order of Leopold is awarded under rarer circumstances. The order currently stands third after the Order of Leopold (1st) and the Order of the Crown (2nd) in the Belgian honors hierarchy. The Order of Leopold II is awarded by royal decree. Classes The Order of Leopold II is issued in five classes and three medals: * ', who wears the badge on a sash o ...
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European Court Of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a contracting state has breached one or more of the human rights enumerated in the convention or its optional protocols to which a member state is a party. The court is based in Strasbourg, France. The court was established in 1959 and decided its first case in 1960 in ''Lawless v. Ireland''. An application can be lodged by an individual, a group of individuals, or one or more of the other contracting states. Aside from judgments, the court can also issue advisory opinions. The convention was adopted within the context of the Council of Europe, and all of its member states of the Council of Europe, 46 member states are contracting parties to the convention. The court's primary means of judicial interpretation is the living instrument doctrine, ...
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Agusta Scandal
The Agusta scandal (, ), alternatively known as the Agusta–Dassault Case, was a major political scandal which occurred in Belgium during the 1990s, based on allegations that two multinational companies had used bribery to secure large Military acquisition, defence procurement contracts. The companies in question, Agusta and Dassault Aviation, Dassault, bribed numerous political office-holders in 1988 in order to secure a large order of AgustaWestland AW109, Agusta A109 helicopters and the contract for re-fitting Belgian General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jets respectively. The scandal came to light during investigations into the death of the socialist politician André Cools in 1991 and an official enquiry was opened in 1993. Numerous senior figures in both Walloon and Flemish socialist parties were implicated, including the incumbent Secretary General of NATO Willy Claes who was forced to resign. The Agusta scandal was the first of a series of ...
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Belgian Franc
The Belgian franc was the currency of the Kingdom of Belgium from 1832 until 2002 when the euro was introduced. It was subdivided into 100 subunits, each known as a in Dutch, or in French and German. History The ''gulden'' (guilder) of 20 ''stuivers'' was the currency of present-day Belgium from the 15th to 19th centuries until its replacement in 1832 by the Belgian franc. Its value differed from the Dutch guilder, gulden of the Dutch Republic during the latter's separation from Belgium from 1581 to 1816. Standard coins issued in Belgium include: * From 1618: the :nl:Patagon, ''patagon'' or ''Albertusthaler'' of 24.55 g fine silver, worth 2.4 gulden or 48 stuiver (or 10.23 g fine silver per gulden) * From 1754: the ''kronenthaler'' of 25.71 g fine silver, worth 3.15 gulden ''currency'' or 2.7 ''gulden of exchange'' (9.52 g silver per exchange gulden). The French Écu#Silver écu of 1726, silver écu of 26.67 g silver was also accepted for 2.8 exchange gulden. * From 1816 to 1832 ...
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NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member states—30 European and 2 North American. Established in the aftermath of World War II, the organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty, signed in Washington, D.C., on 4 April 1949. NATO is a collective security system: its independent member states agree to defend each other against attacks by third parties. During the Cold War, NATO operated as a check on the threat posed by the Soviet Union. The alliance remained in place after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, and has been involved in military operations in the Balkans, the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa. The organization's motto is . The organization's strategic concepts include Deterrence theory, deterrence. NATO headquarters, NATO's main headquarter ...
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Rwandan Genocide
The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, occurred from 7 April to 19 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. Over a span of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Great Lakes Twa, Twa, were systematically killed by Hutu militias. While the Constitution of Rwanda, Rwandan Constitution states that over 1 million people were killed, most scholarly estimates suggest between 500,000 and 662,000 Tutsi died, mostly men. The genocide was marked by extreme violence, with victims often murdered by neighbors, and widespread sexual violence, with between 250,000 and 500,000 women raped. The genocide was rooted in long-standing ethnic tensions, exacerbated by the Rwandan Civil War, which began in 1990 when the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a predominantly Tutsi rebel group, invaded Rwanda from Uganda. The war reached a tentative peace with the Arusha Accords (Rwanda), Arusha Accords in 1993. However, the Assassina ...
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