Word: spaak
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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They also had a remarkably small Communist Party (about 100,000). Complains Communist Secretary General Jean Terfve: "Belgians are a peculiar people. They always grumble, but fundamentally they are satisfied." Spaak puts it differently. "Prosperity," he says, "is the death of Communism...
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...
...Spaak had not yet found a formula to satisfy both sides, but he sat at his desk (with four telephones) churning out ideas. Callers were ushered in through one of the three doors to the Premier's office-usually a moment after a rival had been ushered out through another. "In a crisis," says Spaak, "see everyone, and keep on proposing things...
...Bolshevik in Dinner Jacket. Rival principles, like rival callers, have walked in & out of Spaak's life at top speed. He was born (1899) of a notable and nonconformist Belgian family who felt, in the words of a friend, that they were born to lead Belgium. His maternal grandfather, Paul Janson, and his uncle, Paul Emile Janson, were great Liberal leaders; his father was a well-known playwright; his mother, a Socialist, was the first woman to sit in Belgium's Parliament. At 75, white-haired, good-humored Senator Spaak listens proudly to the speeches...
...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...