Antoinette Spaak
 Antoinette Spaak    (politician) | ||||||||||||||
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| Born | 27 June 1928 Brussels, Belgium | |||||||||||||
| Died | 28 August 2020 (Age 92) | |||||||||||||
| Nationality | Belgian | |||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Free University of Brussels | |||||||||||||
| Partner | Étienne Davignon | |||||||||||||
| Parents | Paul-Henri Spaak | |||||||||||||
| Siblings | Fernand Spaak | |||||||||||||
| Party | Reformist Movement | |||||||||||||
| Relatives | • Marie Janson • Paul Janson • Paul-Émile Janson | |||||||||||||
Second generation Bilderberger, daughter of Paul-Henri Spaak, partner of Étienne Davignon.
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Antoinette Spaak was daughter of Paul-Henri Spaak and long-time partner of Étienne Davignon, both deep politicians.
She attended the 1987 Bilderberg meeting.
Background
She grew up in one of the leading political families in Belgium. She is the daughter of former Belgian Prime Minister and NATO Secretary General Paul-Henri Spaak. Her brother is the diplomat and Bilderberger Fernand Spaak, who reportedly died in a murder-suicide.
After the liberation in 1945 she traveled a lot with her father for political meetings[1]
She was the long-time partner of chair of the Bilderberg Steering committee Étienne Davignon.
Education
She studied philosophy and literature at the Université Libre de Bruxelles.
Career
After the death of her father, she took over his role in the Front démocratique des francophones (FDF) and became its party leader from 1977 to 1982. She was the first woman at the head of a political party in Belgium.
Like her father, Antoinette Spaak was a convinced European Union supporter. She was a Member of the European Parliament from 1977 to 1982 and again from 1994 to 1999. She thus publicly expressed her disappointment and her pain in the face of Brexit in 2016.[2]
Between 1982 and 2001 she was a municipal councillor in Elsene.
Antoinette Spaak fought for the rights of French speakers in Belgium and more particularly in Brussels. Between 1988 and 1992 she was president of the Parliament of the French Community, from 1989 to 1991 she also sat in the Brussels Capital Parliament. In particular, she campaigned to make Brussels a region in its own right, finding herself more than once in violent demonstrations against Flemish nationalists.[1]
Event Participated in
| Event | Start | End | Location(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilderberg/1987 | 24 April 1987 | 26 April 1987 | Italy Cernobbio | 35th Bilderberg, in Italy, 106 participants |
