André Cools
Belgian politician (1927–1991)
André H.P. Cools (French pronunciation: [ɑ̃dʁe kols]; 1 August 1927 – 18 July 1991) was a Belgian politician and a senior figure within the Walloon Socialist Party (PS) in the Liège region. He was assassinated in 1991 and the subsequent investigation uncovered widespread graft within Belgium's two socialist parties.
Political career
André Cools was born on 1 August 1927 in Flémalle-Grande to a family of trade unionist activists. His father, Marcel Cools, was a member of the Belgian Labour Party and the Belgian Resistance, and was deported to Mauthausen concentration camp, where he was executed. André joined the Belgian Socialist Party in 1945, and during the royal question crisis he advocated for the abolition of the monarchy.
Cools was the Belgian budget minister from 1968 to 1971, Deputy Prime Minister from 1969 to 1972, head of the Walloon section of the Belgian Parti Socialiste (PS) from 1973 to 1978, chairman of the national party from 1978 to 1981, president of the Walloon Council from 1982 to 1985, and minister of the government of the Walloon Region from 1988 to 1990. He was also given the honorific title of Minister of State in 1983. In 1990 he retired from the national political scene after an internal power struggle within the PS but he remained influential in the local party in Liège.
Cools was noted for his pithy pronouncements. For example, when in 1984 he commented on who he thought the four greatest United States presidents had been, he said: 'Roosevelt, Roosevelt, Roosevelt and Roosevelt'.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q518075. VIAF identifies the subject as 6673539. The Library of Congress control number is n97022540. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1927, 1991, 1945 and 1968.
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This entry incorporates text from “André Cools” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.