Paul Vanden Boeynants

Vanden Boeynants (called "VDB" by journalists) was born in Forest / Vorst, a municipality in the Brussels-Capital Region. Active as a businessman in the meat industry, he was a Representative for the PSC-CVP between 1949 and 1979. From 1961 to 1966 he led the Christian democrat PSC-CVP (which was in those days a single party). He led the CEPIC, its conservative fraction.

Vanden Boeynants served as minister for the middle class (1958-1961). In 1966, he became Prime Minister of Belgium; he stayed in this post for two years. From 1972-1979 he served as minister of defense. In 1978–1979 he led another Belgian government. Vanden Boeynants then served as chairman of the PSC (1979-1981). He left politics in 1995, and died of pneumonia after undergoing cardiovascular surgery in 2001.

One of his famous expressions, in a unique mixture of Dutch and French, was: Trop is te veel en te veel is trop. ("too many is too much and too much is too many").[2]

Convicted in 1986 for fraud and tax evasion, Vanden Boeynants was given a suspended jail sentence of three years.[2] This prevented him from pursuing mayoral aspirations in Brussels. He underwent a political rehabilitation during the early 1990s.

In an incident that is still the subject of dispute, Vanden Boeynants was kidnapped on 14 January 1989 by members of the Haemers criminal gang.[3] Three days later, the criminals published a note in the leading Brussels newspaper Le Soir, demanding 30 million Belgian francs in ransom. Vanden Boeynants was released unharmed a month later, on 13 February, when an undisclosed ransom was paid to the perpetrators. The gang members were caught and imprisoned. Patrick Haemers, the head of the gang, later committed suicide in prison,[4] and two members of his gang managed to escape from the St Gillis Prison in 1993.

•  Belgium: Minister of State, by Royal Decree.[9]
•  Belgium: Grand Cordon in the Order of Leopold.[9]
•  Belgium: Knight Grand Cross in the Order of Leopold II.[9]
• Knight Grand Cross in the Order of Saints Michael and George.[9]
• Grand Officer in the Legion of Honour.[9]

• N. Hirson, Paul Vanden Boeynants, Brussels, 1969.
• Paul Debogne, Les Amis de Paul Vanden Boeynants et leurs Affaires, Ed. Vie Ouvrière, Brussel, 1970.
• R. Stuyck, Paul Vanden Boeynants, boeman of supermen?, Brussels, 1973.
• Els Cleemput & Alain Guillaume, La rançon d'une vie. Paul Vanden Boeynants 30 jours aux mains de Patrick Haemers, Brussels, 1990.
• D. Ilegems & J. Willems, De avonturen van VDB, Brussels, 1991.
• P. Havaux & P. Marlet, Sur la piste du crocodile, Brussels, 1994.
• Armand De Decker, In memoriam Paul Vanden Boeynants, Belgian Senate, 18 January 2001.

• Paul Vanden Boeynants in ODIS - Online Database for Intermediary Structures