Pierre Harmel
| Pierre Harmel | |
|---|---|
Pierre Harmel in 1965
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| Prime Minister of Belgium | |
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In office 28 July 1965 – 19 March 1966 |
|
| Monarch | Baudouin |
| Preceded by | Théo Lefèvre |
| Succeeded by | Paul Vanden Boeynants |
| President of the Senate | |
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In office 19 October 1973 – 7 June 1977 |
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| Preceded by | Paul Struye |
| Succeeded by | Robert Vandekerckhove |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
16 March 1911 Uccle, Belgium |
| Died | 15 November 2009 (aged 98) Brussels, Belgium |
| Political party |
Christian Social Party Humanist Democratic Centre |
| Alma mater | University of Liège |
| Profession | Lawyer |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Pierre Charles José Marie Harmel, Count Harmel (16 March 1911 – 15 November 2009) was a Belgian lawyer, Christian Democratic politician and diplomat. Harmel served eight months as the 40th Prime Minister of Belgium.
He was born in Uccle, son of father Charles Harmel and mother Eusibie André. He studied law at the University of Liège (Liège), where he obtained the titles of Doctor of Laws and Master of Social Science in 1933. During his studies, he was active in the Association catholique belge, of which he became the chairman in 1938.
Mobilized in 1940, he took part in the 18 days Campaign. In 1947, he was appointed professor of Law at the University of Liège.
Member of the PSC-CVP since its creation in 1945, Harmel was elected deputy for the first time in the parliamentary elections of 17 February 1946. He would keep his seat without interruption until 1971.
Harmel represented Belgium at the fourth session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1949. He subsequently was member of several governments in the 1950s and 1960s.
During his period as Minister of Education (8 June 1950 until 22 April 1954), Harmel increased the wages of teachers in private (i.e. Catholic) schools and introduced laws linking the subsidies for private schools to the number of pupils. These measures were perceived by the secularists (i.e. the anti-clerical Liberals and Socialists) as a declaration of war. When the 1954 elections brought to power a coalition of Socialists and Liberals, the new Education Minister, Leo Collard, immediately set out to reverse the measures taken by his predecessor, sparking mass protests by the Catholic bloc. A compromise was eventually found by the next government (a Catholic minority government led by Gaston Eyskens), and the "School War" was concluded by 6 November 1958 School Pact. André Molitor was one of the chief architects of the school pact.
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