Paul-Henry Gendebien, former Walloon and European deputy, died at 84

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The Belgian political world is in mourning. Paul-Henry Gendebien died this Saturday, May 4, 2024. He was a Doctor of Law and an economist. He exercised various political functions (deputy, alderman of the City of Thuin, European parliamentarian) or even that of general delegate of the French Community, in Paris.

The 1,000 Lives of Paul-Henry Gendebien

Born in Hastière in July 1939, he was a researcher at CRISP before being an assistant at Lovanium University in Kinshasa and then joining the ranks of the Walloon Rally.

It was under this banner that he began his political career in the town of Thuin, as a municipal councilor before being appointed alderman at the end of the 1970s.

He was elected head of the Walloon Rally party in 1974, when his predecessor Robert Moreau was appointed minister. The RW then left the opposition to support the Tindemans government.

Paul-Henry Gendebien will occupy the head of the party until 1979, the year he was elected member of the European Parliament. He ended up leaving the party in 1981, opposed to the latter again presenting a common list with the FDF (today Défi).

During the 1980s, he passed through the PWE (Walloon Presence in Europe), ADW (Walloon Democratic Alliance) lists and also held the presidency of the PSC group (today Les Engagés) at the Walloon Regional Council.

He gave up all his parliamentary mandates in 1988 when he was appointed general delegate of the French Community to the Francophonie in Paris. Having become a civil servant, he no longer participates in the debate of political ideas publicly. He will return to the fight for the independence of Wallonia on his return to the country in 1996. He will create the Rassemblement Wallonie France in 1999, a movement which he will chair until 2012.

Paul-Henry Gendebien will also have published several books, notably on his career and his political ideas, and recently on the Ardennes. A region that he cherished and in which he died on Friday after a short illness.