Achille Van Acker

Achille Van Acker was a Belgian politician who served three terms as prime minister of Belgium between 1945 and 1958. Born in 1898 and dying in 1975, he came from Flanders and was a member of the Belgian Socialist Party, where he was regarded as a moderate figure. He is remembered for the part he played in creating the Belgian welfare state in the years after the Second World War. He also organized the so-called coal battle, a national campaign to raise coal production after the war ended, which helped Belgium recover its economy more quickly than many of its neighbours. His three separate periods at the head of government make him one of the central figures of Belgian postwar politics, associated with social reform, reconstruction and the compromise between labour and the established order.