Paul Janson (11 April 1840 – 19 April 1913) was a Walloon

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politician.Jean Francis ''Mes belges années'' 1974 "Paul Janson ne demeura que quatre ans dans la cité liégeoise car sa famille vint s'établir à Ixelles, rue de l'Arbre-bénit mais tout son atavisme était wallon et il continua de se sentir tel. Bien plus tard, il écrira : « Là où se trouve la Meuse..", écrira-t-il beaucoup plus tard, "je suis content". Born in

Herstal Herstal (; wa, Hesta), formerly known as Heristal, or Héristal, is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. It lies along the Meuse river. Herstal is included in the "Greater Liège" agglomeration, which c ...

, Janson studied philosophy and law at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. From an early age he was a strong supporter of electoral reform and stood on the progressive wing of the Belgian liberal movement. A modern study suggests that only "his visceral rejection of the class struggle" kept him from the burgeoning socialist movement. Janson was elected to the Belgian Chamber of Representatives for the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

in 1877, but was not re-elected in 1884. That year he became a local councillor in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. Re-elected in 1889, he continued to agitate for universal suffrage, having established the Fédération progressiste of liberals who shared this, and other progressive goals. Universal male suffrage, albeit with plural vote, was introduced in 1893. In his later years he favoured electoral co-operation with the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...

. He was appointed an honorary

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on 14 August 1912. Paul Janson was the father of future Prime Minister of Belgium Paul-Émile Janson and

Marie Janson Marie Janson (23 July 1873 – 8 March 1960) was a Belgian politician and the first woman to serve in the Belgian senate. She was a daughter of Paul Janson and Anna-Augustine Amoré. Born in Brussels, her father Paul Janson was leading me ...

(later Spaak), first female member of the Belgian parliament, mother of Prime Minister

Paul-Henri Spaak Paul-Henri Charles Spaak (; 25 January 1899 – 31 July 1972) was an influential Belgian Socialist politician, diplomat and statesman. Along with Robert Schuman, Alcide De Gasperi and Konrad Adenauer he was a leader in the formation of the ...

References

*
Biography of Paul Janson
at the ''Centre Jean Gol'' of the

Reformist Movement The Reformist Movement (french: Mouvement Réformateur, MR) is a liberal French-speaking political party in Belgium. MR is traditionally a conservative-liberal party, but it also contains social-liberal factions. The party is in coalition as ...

, modern heir of the liberal party *
Paul Janson
1840 births 1913 deaths Belgian Ministers of State People from Herstal Liberal Party (Belgium) politicians Free University of Brussels (1834–1969) alumni {{Brussels-politician-stub