Jan Verroken (30 January 1917 – 24 July 2020) was a Belgian politician.

Biography

Born on 30 January 1917, Verroken served as burgomaster of

Oudenaarde Oudenaarde (; french: Audenarde ; in English sometimes ''Oudenarde'') is a Belgian municipality in the Flemish province of East Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Oudenaarde proper and the towns of Bevere, Edelare, Eine, Ename, ...

, President of the

Christelijke Volkspartij Christian Democratic and Flemish (, , CD&V) is a Flemish Christian-democratic political party in Belgium. The party has historical ties to both trade unionism ( ACV) and trade associations ( UNIZO) and the Farmer's League. Until 2001, the party ...

in the

Belgian Parliament The Federal Parliament is the bicameral parliament of Belgium. It consists of the Chamber of Representatives ( Dutch: , french: Chambre des Représentants, german: Abgeordnetenkammer) and the Senate ( Dutch: , french: Sénat, german: Senat). It ...

, and a Deputy for the Oudenaarde constituency. He was also a member of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adop ...

and served on the

Benelux Parliament The Benelux Parliament (officially known as the Benelux Interparliamentary Assembly) is one of the institutions of the Benelux economic union. The Parliament was established by an agreement signed by Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg on 5 Nov ...

. Verroken was detested in

Wallonia Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—al ...

, the francophone part of

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

. During the

Split of the Catholic University of Leuven The Catholic University of Leuven was one of Belgium's major universities. It split along linguistic lines after a period of civil unrest in 1967–68 commonly known as the Leuven Affair (''Affaire de Louvain'') in French and Flemish Leuven (''Le ...

Flemish students chanted "Walen buiten" (Walloons out), a slogan coined by Verroken. The university was split into the

KU Leuven KU Leuven (or Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. It conducts teaching, research, and services in computer science, engineering, natural sciences, theology, humanities, medicine, l ...

and the

Université catholique de Louvain The Université catholique de Louvain (also known as the Catholic University of Louvain, the English translation of its French name, and the University of Louvain, its official English name) is Belgium's largest French-speaking university. It ...

. In a 2016 interview with Pierre Havaux, Verroken minimized his role in these events, as well as downplaying the separatist tendency of Flemish demands, saying that there was "never in Flanders a project of form a separatist government, as was the case in Wallonia during the Royal Question".

References

1917 births 2020 deaths People from Oudenaarde Christian Democratic and Flemish politicians Belgian centenarians Men centenarians Members of the Chamber of Representatives (Belgium) Members of the Flemish Parliament MEPs for Belgium 1979–1984 Mayors of places in Belgium 20th-century Belgian politicians {{Belgium-bio-stub