Word: harmell
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Party Ultimatum. In Brussels, the reaction was angry and immediate. Fearful that another anti-white bloodletting was imminent, Foreign Minister Pierre Harmel flew home from a vacation in southern France to appear on radio and television and demand that Mobutu guarantee the safety of the 40,000 Belgians who live in the Congo. Otherwise, Harmel implied, Belgium would cut off its $70 million-a-year aid program and order its citizens home, a move that could mean the virtual col lapse of all the Congo's industries, communications and civil service...
...thus cause them to reconsolidate their bloc, harden their line, and heat up the cold war all over again. Other council members scoffed at the idea, just as, in private, they more and more scoff at the capricious positions of De Gaulle. Said Belgium's Foreign Minister Pierre Harmel: "The European Economic Community is a living organism. You cannot restrict its growth without killing...
...quietly packed their black satchels, gassed up their autos and made sure that their passports were in order. They were preparing to flee into neighboring Holland or France and thus plunge Belgium into its second doctors' strike in less than two years, unless the government of Premier Pierre Harmel agreed to require patients to pay fees for doctors' services in the country's six Socialist-run clinics...
...eastern Belgium. Miners had gone on a rampage after the government gave notice that it was closing down the uneconomic Zwartberg mine, which employs 4,000. The riots lasted three days and a miner and a miner's son were killed in clashes with state police before Premier Harmel sent in 350 soldiers to restore order. The government finally brought calm by promising that the mine would not be closed until all the miners either had new jobs or had been pensioned...
...problems, it found itself terribly divided. Ever since it came to office six months ago, after one of the longest Cabinet crises (65 days) in Belgian history, the coalition of 15 Christian Socialists and twelve Socialists has been unable to agree on how to deal with the doctors. Harmel's Christian Socialists favor a lenient stand toward the physicians, while the Socialists would like to trim the doctors down to size. Remembering that the last doctors' strike lasted 18 days and ended in a retreat by both sides, Harmel decided to quit before the fighting even began...