Word: spaak
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More Royalist than the King. Paul-Henri Spaak's Socialists heard the speech in their conference room at the Maison du Peuple. Said one Socialist deputy: "A step forward toward national harmony." But the Socialists were making no decision until they learned how other parties interpreted the message. The Christian Socialists were divided, but the more-royalist-than-the-King faction could hardly hold out against the King's compromise...
Belgium's Christian Socialists maneuvered doggedly for a cabinet that would restore exiled Leopold III to the throne. The anti-Leopoldists, led by the Socialists' Paul-Henri Spaak, blustered, brawled and blocked just as doggedly to keep the King away...
Students and strikers massed at Socialist headquarters, chanted "Ab -di -ca -tion!" and "Leopold to the gallows!" Paul-Henri Spaak doffed the morning coat of a continental diplomat for the shirtsleeves of pavement politics. He appeared at a third-floor window and cried: "We ask the gendarmes to retire. This is a legal demonstration. Gendarmes have no business here." Coatless and bareheaded, Spaak led a parade of his belligerent followers through the city. The crowd noticed a repairman on top of a tram whose guide rope had been torn down by demonstrators. "Come down off that tram...
Indefatigable Paul-Henri Spaak next hurried to Liege to join a parade of 20,000. Everywhere he warned: "What we are doing today is a prelude. If Leopold comes back, that's when the real trouble will start...
Acerbity & Rancor. Socialist Leader Paul-Henri Spaak opposed holding a referendum. He foresaw that the vote for Leopold might fall in the indecisive area between 55% and 65%, and that the King would carry Flanders, lose Wallonia. In that case, said Spaak, "the government would not only have on its hands the King's abdication or return, it would also have to appease the anger, acerbity and rancor of Flanders or Wallonia...