Belgian prime minister and EU federalist with a forte for negotiation
Jean-Luc Dehaene, who has died aged 73, was a Belgian prime minister and ardent European federalist whose backroom negotiating skills helped keep his country together during its greatest trials. Dehaene wrenched compromise from Belgium's intractable quandaries, including the royal succession, a paedophile scandal, Belgium's entry into the euro and countless wrangles between its bickering French and Dutch-speaking communities.
A Flemish Christian Democrat, he had an ability to reconcile squabbling factions that almost propelled him to the presidency of the European commission in 1994, but his zeal for federalism led the British prime minister John Major to veto his candidacy.
Continue reading...