Laurent Merchiers (9 June 1904 – 5 February 1986) was a Belgian liberal politician, lawyer, and a professor at the

University of Ghent Ghent University (, abbreviated as UGent) is a Public university, public research university located in Ghent, in the East Flanders province of Belgium. Located in Flanders, Ghent University is the second largest Belgian university, consisting o ...

. During the occupation of Belgium, working as an editor for the clandestine newspapers

Vrij Nederland ''Vrij Nederland'' (Free Netherlands) is a Dutch magazine, established during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II as an underground newspaper. It has since grown into a magazine. The originally weekly turned monthly magazin ...

and Het Belfort, and was also a member of the Ghent Independence Front affiliated with the KPB. He was

mayor of Ghent This is a list of mayors of Ghent, Belgium: 1800s 1900s 2000s See also * Timeline of Ghent References {{commons category, Mayors of Ghentinfo from het Liberaal Archief(in Dutch) * Ghent Ghent ( ; ; historically known as ''Gaunt'' i ...

in a liberal-socialist coalition from 1953 to 1958. Laurent Merchiers was a member of

parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

and

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

(1955–1971), and minister of justice (1958–1960). He resigned as a minister after the Congo crisis.

Sources

Laurent Merchiers
(Liberal archive) 1904 births 1986 deaths Flemish politicians People from Zottegem Academic staff of Ghent University Mayors of Ghent {{Belgium-mayor-stub