Word: paul-henri
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Belgium's "crisis" ended in total victory for Premier Paul-Henri Spaak. When a faction of his own Socialist Party had refused to go along with his handling of the Socialist-Catholic dispute over school subsidies, he had resigned (TIME, May 17). Last week, at the "earnest request" of Regent Charles and of Parliament, he withdrew his resignation. Spaak was back on his own terms-the compromise finally adopted in the school dispute was (except for minor details) the one on which he had insisted all along. "He is really strong -too strong for the others," said a Brussels...
Over their coffee and pistolets (rolls), Belgians found no hint in their morning papers that anything special was in the air. But by evening of the next day, Premier Paul-Henri Spaak had resigned. Belgians were so bewildered that they called their first political crisis in over a year la drole de crise, as they had once spoken of la drole de guerre (the phony...
...Paul-Henri Spaak, who in his Bond Street-style clothes still recalls Pieter Bruegel's ripe-colored, sturdy figures, himself best symbolizes Belgium's healthy appetite for good life, good sense and hard work. Last week he had a chance to show his mettle in a political controversy-the matter of raising the subsidies to state schools. That was a touchy business in a coalition government of eight Socialists, nine Christian Socialists (Catholic party) and two nonparty technicians. The Catholic party, which has strong roots among a people whose lusty contentment is matched by deep religious feeling, protested...
...Paul-Henri was," says Marie Spaak, "the easiest of my children to handle, so sweet and affectionate. He still is. When he takes me to dinner he comes hunting for me in the Senate, asking everyone, 'Avez-vous vu Maman...
...school, Paul-Henri was erratically brilliant. Once, when he flunked an exam, he forestalled punishment by declaring: "I have already administered to myself the full flow of reproach which a boy in my situation usually gets from Papa and Maman" Spaak's culture is essentially French, and his early heroes were French. He was particularly keen on Napoleon until, in his own words, he "became aware that it was compromising for a politician to admire Napoleon too much...