Robert Devos

Robert Devos (18 November 1916 - 3 September 1996) was a Belgian politician (CVP & PSC). He served as a Member of Parliament ("Volksvertegenwoordiger" / "Député"), representing the Kortrijk electoral district between 1958 and 1965 and the Doornik-Aat-Moeskroen electoral district between 1965 and 1977. He continued to serve as parliamentary Quaestor between 1968 and 1971. He served, more briefly, as a member of the Parliament of Wallonia and the Parliament of the French Community during 1980/81.[1][2]

Devos was concurrently a member of the district council for the bilingual municipality of Mouscron between 1952 and 1981: between 1959 and 1980 he served as district mayor.[3][2]

Life and career

Provenance and early years

Robert Maurice Georges Devos was born during the First World War at Oostrozebeke, a small town then at the heart of the flax industry, and a short distance to the north of Kortrijk in West Flanders.[1] He had been born into a Roman Catholic family, and in 1937/38 he was appointed to a teaching job at the St Joseph Episcopal College, a secondary school in Mouscron,[4] some 20 miles to the south of his birth-town.[1] At some stage he acquired a teaching degree from the "Hoger instituut voor pedagogie" (as the teaching academy at Ghent was then known) in East Flanders.[5] Mouscron, where he taught at the Francophone college till 1945,[5] is known for its sixteenth century "Hurlus" protestant rebels. During the public career of Robert Devos in the second half of the twentieth century, the town's cultural-religious and linguistic differences would continue to provide a challenging backdrop for politics in the region that still finds itself at the western end of Belgium's Franco-Flemish language frontier. During the 1940s he engaged actively with the "Christelijke Ziekenkassen" (Christian health insurance movement) and in 1945 became deputy chairman of the "Christelijke Mutualiteiten" (nationwide federation of Christian health insurance organisations).[1]

Municipal politician

At the local elections held in October 1952, Robert Devos stood successfully as a PSC list candidate for election to the Mouscron municipal council.[6] He would continue as a member of the council without a break till 1981.[1] In 1957 the PSC won an overall majority on the council and Devos became deputy mayor.[7] At the start of 1959 he became Mayor of Mouscron[7] in succession to Joseph Vandevelde of the Belgian Socialist Party.[8]

National politician

By 1958 the PSC had been subsumed into the centre-right "Christelijke Volkspartij" / "Parti Social Chrétien" ("Christian Social Party" / CVP). It was as a CVP candidate that Devos stood in the June 1958 general election: The CVP won the election nationally despite falling very slightly short of obtaining an overall majority of votes and seats in the parliament ("Kamer van Volksvertegenwoordigers" / "Chambre des représentants"). Four of the six members representing the Kortrijk electoral district came from the CVP. Robert Devos was one of them. Major constitutional changes were implemented in 1965, triggering major boundary changes to electoral districts. Devos now sat as one of seven constituency members representing the Doornik-Aat-Moeskroen electoral district till resigning his seat in 1981.[5][9] In the parliament Devos served between 1968 and 1971 as Quaestor / Questeur, an administrative function involving the scheduling and organisation of parliamentary business.[1][9]

The constitutional reforms implemented in December 1970 provided for the creation of a "Cultural Council for the French Cultural Community ("Cultuurraad voor de Franse Cultuurgemeenschap" / "Conseil culturel de la Communauté française"), which exercised certain responsibilities and powers in the fields of language, arts and education, in that part of Belgium classified as primarily French-speaking. The Cultural Council was not separately elected. Instead, a "double mandate" system, provided for members of the national parliament representing the affected region to be included also as members of the Cultural Council. Robert Devos therefore sat as a member of the "Cultural Council for the French Cultural Community between 1971 and 1981.[1] Similar arrangements were made in 1980 for the new Walloon Regional Council (precursor of the separately elected Walloon Parliament, launched in 1995). Accordingly, during 1980/81 Devos also sat as a member of the Walloon Regional Council.[1] In February 1981 Robert Devos resigned his various parliamentary mandates, to be succeeded by Jean-Pierre Detremmerie, who shortly before had already taken over as Mayor of Mouscron.[7][9]

Transfer of Mouscron

Although citizens with French as their first language outnumbered people with Flemish as a first language by approximately 3:1 in Mouscron through the first half of the twentieth century, the shifts in political and language frontiers through the previous five centuries had left it in the Belgian province of West Flanders, in which Flemish predominates as the mother tongue of the majority. A law passed in 1962 sought to remove the long-standing inequities of class, wealth and status between French speakers and Flemish speakers which had been entrenched in the country long before 1830. Separate language areas were established for each of the three linguistically defined communities. Each province was defined as either Flemish-speaking or else French-speaking. Special arrangements were made for the German-speaking communities in the east of Belgium, which were given a fair measure of autonomy, albeit still within the otherwise French-speaking Wallonia area. Special arrangements were also made for the Brussels region, to take account of the stark linguistic differences between adjacent and closely connected quarters of the city. But little Mouscron lacked the political muscle of Brussels or even of the German speaking eastern cantons. It was instead simply transferred from Flemish-speaking West Flanders to French-speaking Hainaut, in a move which Robert Devos, as municipal mayor, bitterly opposed, with the backing of many of his Mouscron fellow-citizens.[1][2]

References
  1. Paul Delforge (December 2014). "Robert Devos: Oostrozebeke 18/11/1916, Mouscron 3/09/1996". Dictionnaire des Wallons & Encyclopédie du Mouvement wallon, Parlementaires et ministres de la Wallonie (1974-2009). "Connaître la Wallonie" & Institut Destrée. pp. 195–196. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  2. André Vanheede. "Taalgrensproblematiek: Komen-Moeskroen". Ons Erfdeel. Jaargang 13(1969-1970). DBNL. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  3. Thomas Turillon (5 March 2018). "Le foot hurlu et le café de la Mairie en deuil: Bob Verfaillie nous a quittés". Les Editions de L’Avenir Presse SRL, Bouge. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  4. Jacky Legrain (27 September 1993). "Le centre ville y gagne quelques parkingsL St. Joseph releve les manches a Mouscron". Le Collège Sainte-Marie (que beaucoup continuent d'appeler de son ancien nom, Saint-Joseph), est une véritable institution à Mouscron.... Le Soir, Bruxelles. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  5. "... Robert Devos, CVP: ° Oostrozebeke 18/11/1916 - +3/9/1996". Biografisch repertorium. Heemkundige kring Het Land van Nevele. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  6. "Individual (person), Devos Robert". Robert Devos est né à Ostrozebeke le 18 novembre 1916 et est décèdé à Mouscron le 3 septembre 1996.... Centre d'Archives et de documentation du Centre Permanent pour la Citoyenneté et la Participation (CPCP), Louvain-la-Neuve. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  7. ".... Mouscron: Le décès de Robert Devos". fourth item on page. Le Soir, Bruxelles. 5 September 1996. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  8. "Bourgmestre de Mouscron". Le Grand Mouscron: histoire de la ville et ses environs. 24 July 2018. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  9. "04 Hulde aan de heer Jean-Pierre Detremmerie / Hommage à M. Jean-Pierre Detremmerie" (PDF). Buitengewone Plenumvergadering / Séance Plenière Extraordinaire. Officiele publicaties, uitgegeven door de Kamer van volksvertegenwoordigers / Publications officielles éditées par la Chambre des représentants, Brussel / Bruxelles. 24 January 2002. pp. 2–6. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
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