Jean-Luc Dehaene, the former Prime Minister of Belgium Photo: PAUL GROVER

Jean-Luc Dehaene, who has died aged 73, was the Flemish Christian Democrat Prime Minister of Belgium whose hopes of succeeding Jacques Delors as president of the European Commission were shot down by John Major in 1994 because he was regarded as too much of a federalist.

Major’s triumph was short-lived, however, as the man who was eventually appointed, the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Jacques Santer, soon swept away any idea that he was any less federalist than Dehaene by calling for stronger social legislation and closer integration and criticising the British veto.

Although Major’s action boosted Dehaene’s standing in Belgium, he never fully forgave the British. A photograph which had pride of place in his office featured himself and Lady Thatcher at a ceremony to celebrate the Channel Tunnel, with Thatcher perched on the edge of her seat next to the rotund Flemish federalist, slumped beside her, fast asleep. As a consequence of Major’s veto he was left to serve another five years as head of government of an almost ungovernable state riven by bitter language divisions.

Known to his supporters as “the Plumber” and to his foes as “the Bulldozer”, Dehaene, who became Belgium’s Prime Minister in 1992 and was reelected in 1995, was an archetypal political operator with a remarkable skill for extracting compromise from the most unpromising situations.

In 1993 he won near-universal praise for the astute manner in which Belgium piloted the EU presidency through the Maastricht Treaty and Gatt world trade crises. On the domestic front, to everyone’s surprise, he constructed a coalition government from the bickering Flemish and Walloon politicians who had fought the 1991 election. But although he largely succeeded in keeping Belgium’s tribes from each other’s throats by a constitutional settlement that aimed to be fair to both sides, in the process he made decision-making virtually impossible. In the latter half of his time in office, Dehaene came under pressure for his handling of a series of scandals which eventually led to his being driven from office.

These began in 1996 when the discovery of child kidnapping and murder on an almost industrial scale by the Charleroi builder Marc Dutroux (who had already served time in jail for abducting and raping young girls) almost brought down the government. There was a wave of public outrage when it was revealed that even though Dutroux’s house had been under surveillance — and had been searched three times — two eight-year-old girls locked in a cell in his basement were not discovered in time and starved to death.

^{Jean-Luc Dehaene, Prime Minister of Belgium, with President Bill Clinton in 1999 (AP)}

In October 1996, amid rumours that Dutroux had been, or was being, protected by members of the establishment, 300,000 Belgians marched in protest through Brussels. Public indignation flared up again in April 1998 when Dutroux briefly escaped from custody while being transferred to a courthouse without handcuffs, leading several ministers, and the country’s head of police, to resign as a consequence.

Dehaene survived — just — but faith in the Belgian political establishment was further eroded by corruption scandals involving former government ministers such as Willy Claes, who was convicted in 1998 of taking bribes for helicopter contracts while Nato secretary-general, and by the publication, in 1999, of a report by a think tank which exposed a culture of clientelism and corruption in high places. Among other things the report stated that the region of Wallonia was being run “like a banana republic” in which state employees were “the puppets of politicians and are hired in violation of the principle of equal rights”. In Brussels, it found that supposedly open public examinations had been rigged.

^{Jean-Luc Dehaene, Prime Minister of Belgium, in a Leopard tank with the Belgian armed forces (REUTERS)}

Dahaene’s chances of returning to office were dealt a mortal blow when, shortly before the country went to the polls in June 1999, it was revealed that cancer-causing dioxins had been found in Belgian animal feed, leading the European Commission to issue a warning that Belgian eggs, poultry, pork, beef and dairy products might be contaminated. As countries all over the world imposed bans on imports of Belgian food, Dehaene’s Christian Democrat-Socialist coalition government was widely accused of trying to cover up the food scare until after the elections, while members of the 3.3 million-strong French-speaking Walloon community accused Dehaene of sacrificing the national interest to protect the profits of large Flemish farms to the north. Both the health minister and the agriculture minister, who had known about the contamination since April, resigned when the matter became public.

On the eve of the polls, Dehaene assured voters that the crisis was over, calling for voters to “demonstrate chauvinism” and buy home-produced food as it was reintroduced into the shops. But the dioxin scandal, known as “Chickengate”, proved one crisis too many. Big gains by Greens, Liberals and far-right parties forced Dehaene’s departure. Despite the humiliation, Dehaene put on a brave face. “I was not born in politics and I will certainly not die in it,” he declared as he handed his resignation to King Albert II .“I always slept well, including last night, so don’t worry about me, I will have no problem.”

Jean-Luc Dehaene was born on August 7 1940 in Montpellier into a sophisticated and affluent family from the Flemish city of Bruges. At the time of his birth his parents were in the south of France fleeing the German invasion. His family expected him to become a doctor or a priest, as was the family tradition, and this expectation made for a less than happy childhood. Meal times revolved, he said, around discussions of “illness, death and the state of men’s souls”.

He was educated at a private Jesuit school — a period that triggered his rebellion against his background and launched an interest in politics (while at school he joined the Olivaint Conference, a French student society which aims to prepare its members for public life).

^{Jean-Luc Dehaene at the European Parliament in Brussels in 2010 (AP)}

Belgian media often put Dehaene’s casual appearance and colourful language down to a rejection of his privileged upbringing. He was raised speaking both French and Flemish — commentators claimed that he spoke the former with a bad accent to appeal to his Flemish constituency.

He began his political life through the General Christian Workers’ Union (Algemeen Christelijk Werknemersverbond), a trade union linked to the Christian People’s Party (Christelijke Volkspartij). In 1981 he was made Minister of Social Affairs and Institutional Reform, a post he held until 1988 when he became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Communications and Institutional Reform. In 1992 he began his two terms as Prime Minister.

On his defeat in 1999, Guy Verhofstadt’s Flemish Liberals and Democrats (VLD) formed the first Belgian government without the Christian Democrats since 1958. Dehaene remained a senator until 2001 — and successfully won seats in the European Parliament in the 2004 and 2009 elections — after which he took on a series of roles in national and regional politics and within the business and sports sectors.

He became mayor of Vilvoorde, a city near Brussels, and joined the board of directors of Lernout & Hauspie, a speech-recognition technology company. The firm went bankrupt in 2001 due to a fraud engineered by the firm’s management. That year Dehaene became vice-president of the Convention on the Future of Europe.

He acted as mediator as a new government was being formed after the 2007 Belgian elections and his interest in football — he was often seen cheering enthusiastically at matches and enjoying post-game drinks — led to a role as chief enforcer of financial fair play at Uefa.

In October 2008 he became chairman of the Belgian-French Dexia Bank, with a brief to lead the company through its difficulties caused by the credit crunch.

Dehaene took a relaxed approach to sartorial matters. In July 2013 he was interrupted by a telephone call while enjoying a lunchtime barbecue at his home in Vilvoorde. He was meant to be at a television debate on the forthcoming abdication of King Albert II. Dehaene dashed to the studios and conducted the debate in a “salmon shirt, checked Bermuda shorts, sandals and a healthy glow”. One style guru conceded that at least he avoided socks with sandals.

At the time of his death he was vice-chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgets. He chose not to stand for the 2014 European elections, however. “I did two mandates here, that’s a good period,” he said in January. “I’ll be 74 in June so it’s a good time to stop.”

Dehaene married Celie Verbeke, with whom he published a personal selection of recipes, Cooking With Celie (2005). She survives him with their four children.

Jean-Luc Dehaene, born August 7 1940, died May 15 2014

I agree with Marina Warner’s comments regarding Lucy Bailey’s Titus Andronicus at the Globe (Comment, 12 May), but I don’t believe the play aspires to new levels of savagery. As she rightly points out, animal-baiting was common “entertainment” on Bankside, often promoted by the same people who ran the theatres. Public executions were another popular blood-fest involving the removal of “privities” before the hapless victim’s demise. The playhouses did not flinch from reproducing such bloodbaths on stage as Philip Henslowe’s diary details. Interestingly, Michael Coveney (Shortcuts, 5 May) mentions “droppers” at Love’s Labour’s Lost, suggesting that this may be as much a groundling as a gore-related phenomenon. I have just bought a Yard ticket for Titus Andronicus but shall make sure to pack a sou’wester.
Austen Lynch
Garstang, Lancashire

• Marina Warner comments that productions of old tragedies are reaching new levels of savagery. But this does not only apply on the stage. I was struck by the level of detail in two recent TV programmes. In both The Plantagenets and Byzantium I was surprised at the level of detail devoted to how various unfortunates were killed. I particularly felt for the ruler in Byzantium who was killed by having his testicles crushed.
David Evans
Ashton under Lyne, Greater Manchester

• Kamila Shamsie’s praise of Paulina (Review, 10 May) as “the woman who towers over all her sisters in Shakespeare’s plays” might at least have mentioned Emilia, whose courage in exposing her husband and denouncing Othello as “ignorant as dirt”, leaving him no dignity to cling to, costs her her life.

This deadly arraignment is all the more heroic because of her lowly status as Iago’s downtrodden chattel, with none of Paulina’s ability to direct the course of events. And yet in this moment she becomes the most powerful voice in the play, demolishing the whole idealised fantasy of its central relationship.
Adrian Jackson
Peterborough, Cambridgeshire

• Contrasting yet similar realistic heroines, who strive for their families rather than themselves, can be found living “out of the earth” in very different communities in Emile Zola’s Germinal (1885), set in the mining village of Montsou, and Pearl Buck’s The Good Earth (1931), set among Chinese peasants. La Maheude begs and barters for food and money, and is forced to work in the mine after the loss of her husband. Meanwhile, O-Lan is Wang Lung’s resourceful, subservient and multi-tasking wife who bears him many children, takes care of the cooking and does the household repairs, works in the fields when required to helps with the harvest, and whose last words are to counsel her son and daughter to “look to the family”.
Dr Mark Stroud
Llantrisant, Glamorgan

So many words spent on explaining the five portions of fruit a day theory (You’re twisting my melon, G2, 15 May). If, like me, you hate shopping and can’t be bothered with all those sums, I suggest you become a vegetarian too. Not only will you feel better, but you escape some of the blame for the revolting lives and vile deaths of all those animals you are eating.
Lizzie Hill
Guildford

• Thank you, Margaret Hunt (Letters, 14 May), for highlighting the decline in the British swift population. The British Trust for Ornithology estimates that we are losing our swifts at 3% per annum, and an important factor in this decline is the loss of nesting spaces in buildings. If you are one of the many who mourns the decline of these “wondrous, joyful creatures”, you may wish to put up a nest box. Visit actionforswifts.blogspot.co.uk for advice.
Helen Hodgson
Cambridge

• Having just read Peter Bradshaw’s hilariously scathing review of Grace of Monaco (15 May), I was amazed that he awarded it one star. How bad does a film have to be in order to merit no stars?
Mike Pender
Cardiff

• “Please miss, I’m datherin’” was the complaint made by many a west Cumbrian child as she shivered in a cold playground on a freezing January day (In praise of … neologisms, 14 May).
Janet Mansfield
Aspatria, Cumbria

• I flew in a DC3 (In praise of … the Dakota, 16 May) back and forth from Venezuela to Trinidad on my way to school in the late 50s/early 60s. Lovely planes, but a bit drafty with a good view of the Orinoco delta if you were seated near the passenger door at the rear.
Eric Barber
Cambridge

• Your article (You have to go a long way to get rid of snails, 16 May) reminds me of the story of the man who answers a knock at the door to find a snail on the doorstep, so he throws it into his neighbour’s garden. A year later he answers another knock on the door to find the snail back on the step complaining “What was all that about then?”
Helen Keating
Gatehouse of Fleet, Dumfries and Galloway

Sky News welcomes any media organisation who wishes to help amplify the importance of leaders’ debates (Report, 16 May). We would willingly work alongside the Telegraph, the Guardian and YouTube to ensure as wide an audience as possible has the opportunity to see party leaders respond to questions from the public who vote for them. Your idea for an online debate, however, between the party leaders in the runup to the general election, is not a new one. You argue (Editorial, 16 May) that politicians need to look beyond television and say they are slow to recognise the importance of digital platforms and social media in the political sphere. In fact this is precisely what Sky News did in our leaders’ debate coverage in 2010.
The Sky News, ITN and BBC hosted debates were streamed live on skynews.com and the other broadcasters’ websites in parallel with public webchats. Members of the public had the opportunity to rate the leaders on their performance during the debate and had the opportunity to comment in real time via the Sky News leaders’ debate Facebook fan page. The digital sphere has moved on significantly over the last four years and I envisage the next set of debates will reach millions more via digital and social media platforms. We have ambitious plans in place and, although the traditional television experience will play a large part, it will sit alongside an ever-growing and sophisticated interactive digital experience.
You’re right to say the debates did much to shape the campaign and to engage voters with the political process – but wrong to say they didn’t fully embrace the digital world. It is vital the next series of debates happen, offering a transparent and undiluted opportunity for the public to witness what party leaders have to say about the future of the UK and what it means for the people who live here.
Andrew Hawken
Digital director, Sky News

• Your paean of praise for Alan Moses (Here comes the judge – the maverick aiming to tame Britain’s raucous press, 16 May) makes some surprising omissions. Nowhere, for example, does it mention that Ipso, the press “self-regulator” cooked up by the Mail and Murdoch papers and their friends, and of which Moses is now chair, is by design a rejection of the Leveson report and of the royal charter on press self-regulation that was endorsed by every party in parliament. Nor does it find room to point out that no matter how “independent” Moses may appear as an individual, he will be working within fixed Ipso rules designed to ensure real power remains with the big national newspaper groups – meaning that ordinary citizens cannot achieve fair treatment.

Nor does it note, even in passing, that the Media Standards Trust has established that Ipso meets only 12 of the 38 specific Leveson criteria for independent, effective press self-regulation – a finding no one in the industry has been able to rebut. Nor does it refer to the abundant poll evidence showing overwhelming public support – especially high among Guardian readers – for a Leveson-based, royal charter-based solution to the long-term problem of low ethical journalistic standards at many national newspapers.

Nor does it mention the hundreds of leading figures in the world of free expression – prominent playwrights, authors, comedians, film and theatre directors, barristers, journalists and academics – who signed the declaration in support of the royal charter. Nor does it mention that Ipso is the same company as the discredited Press Complaints Commission it is supposed to replace – in the same building, with substantially the same staff, operating substantially the same totally unsatisfactory complaints system. Nor, curiously, does it refer to the formal rejection of the Ipso model by the Guardian Media Group last year, on the grounds that it lacked independence and effectiveness.

Ipso is a shameless attempt by the perpetrators of continuing abuses against the public to pretend that the entire Leveson process never happened and to ensure they continue to mark their own homework. The new chair, maverick or not, will be unable to change that, first because the Ipso rules are not his to alter and second because the Sun, the Mail, the Telegraph, the Express, the Mirror and the Times have gone to great lengths to ensure that Ipso is under their collective thumb. I earnestly hope your article is not a hint that the Guardian, which did so much to expose wrongdoing by these powerful corporations, is weakening in its resolve to resist a system that so flagrantly cheats the public.
Brian Cathcart
Executive director, Hacked Off

• An interesting article on Alan Moses. Pity that there was no mention of his salary and who pays it.
Wyn Francis
Goxhill, Lincolnshire

We are senior professionals with many years of practice, management, education and research experience in child protection nationally and internationally. We are very concerned that the government consultation, launched with a very short period of only six weeks, intends that all children‘s social work services in England, including child protection, be opened up to the market and without regulation. The only exception is adoption services.

England has one of the most successful child protection systems in the world. This is based on strong accountability, stability, continuity, good local partnership working across professionals and agencies, and with experienced and committed professionals and leadership. The intention that private sector organisations such as G4S, Serco, Atos and others should be able to run child protection services causes considerable concern.

Their track record elsewhere has hardly been unblemished in providing Olympics security, over-claiming payments for tagging offenders, misreporting on GP out-of hours contracts, and delaying and denying disability benefits (Reformers renew call for G4S and Serco ban, 13 May). Child protection is much too important to be exposed to their fickleness and failings.
Professor Ray Jones Kingston University and St George’s, University of London
Emeritus professor June Thoburn University of East Anglia
Professor Sue White University of Birmingham
Professor Harry Ferguson University of Nottingham
Professor Nick Frost Leeds Metropolitan University
Professor Nigel Parton University of Huddersfield
Professor Helen Cosis Brown University of Bedfordshire
Professor Marian Brandon University of East Anglia
Professor Jan Horwath University of Sheffield
Professor Eric Blyth University of Huddersfield
Professor Viv Cree Edinburgh University
Professor Stephen Webb Glasgow Caledonian University
Professor Gillian Ruch University of Sussex
Emeritus professor Jane Tunstill Royal Holloway, University of London
Professor Brigid Daniel University of Stirling
Professor Brian Littlechild University of Hertfordshire
Professor Nigel Thomas University of Central Lancashire
Professor Nick Gould University of Bath
Professor Brigid Featherstone Open University
Professor Keith Popple London South Bank University
Emeritus professor Ann Davis University of Birmingham
Professor Andy Bilson University of Central Lancashire
Professor Jonathan Parker Bournemouth University
Professor Aiden Worsley University of Central Lancashire
Professor Steven Shardlow Keele University
Professor Shula Ramon Anglia University
Lynn Sheridan Glasgow Caledonian University
Professor Iain Ferguson University of West of Scotland
Professor Sonia Jackson Institute of Education, University of London
Monica Dowling Formerly professor of social work, Open University
Professor Kate Wilson University of Nottingham
Professor Suzy Braye University of Sussex
Professor Hugh McLaughlin Manchester Metropolitan University
Professor Timothy Kelly University of Dundee
James Blewett Kings College, London
Professor Adele Jones University of Huddersfield
Professor Nicky Stanley University of Central Lancashire

A private school teacher says state schools fail to teach moral to their pupils . . .

Sir, Richard Walden, of the Independent Schools Association, maligns state schools, teachers and pupils (“State school pupils don’t know right from wrong, says top teacher”, May 15).

Every state school is acutely aware of its responsibility to give students a well-rounded education and to encourage them to have a sense of right and wrong at all times. Look at Stephen Sutton (“Teenager who raised £3m loses cancer battle”, May 15), who raised a fortune for charity during his illness, and the wonderful young people at his school, Chase Terrace Technology College, who supported his efforts. State schools do not get the credit they deserve.

Shay Daly

Hale, Altrincham

Sir, The irony will not be lost on your readers that you report the views of Richard Walden, “ top teacher” of an independent school while also running a report, “The Dark World of School Abuse” (May 15) by teachers of a top independent school. Although Mr Walden’s view smacks of the usual patronising arrogance of the private sector towards state schools, to claim that his pupils have superior emotional intelligence beggars belief.

Adrian Hilton

Hove, Sussex

Sir, Good teachers in any school try hard to establish a secure, moral framework through effective teaching and example, often when pupils have little or no guidance at home because of poor parenting. However, the government puts many demands on the time and resources of the state school teachers. Boarding schools have the children on a 24/7 basis and obviously have more time to enrich their pupils’ learning, even when the home background, although financially advantaged, may be inadequate.

Perhaps Mr Walden could persuade Michael Gove to leave the state school teachers alone to do what they do extremely effectively — when not deprived of energy and enthusiasm by time-consuming and target-driven government edicts.

Sue Vincent

Padbury, Bucks

Sir, I have just retired from teaching; my last school was a state school in East London. What Mr Walden does not realise is that before we begin to teach some youngsters, we have to address their emotional, behavioural and mental health problems. Yes, private schools devote much time to extra-curricular activities — so do state schools, organised and led by teachers who are prepared to give up their free time because they care. The “focus on league tables and attainment levels” is imposed by people who send their children to private schools, but it certainly does not detract from our determination to give our pupils a sense of discipline and self-worth as well as a moral conscience.

Luisa Pinnell

London E10

Sir, It is wrong to suggest that state schools in general are creating amoral children. Many state schools, despite generally having less time and money per child than private schools, do an outstanding job in this area of teaching.

What is needed urgently is for government and Ofsted to prioritise the development of character to a far higher degree.

Time spent on this will only enhance exam results and the quality of education.

Dr Anthony Seldon

Master, Wellington College

The RSPB’s determination to safeguard birds at all costs can have negative knock-on effects on other species

Sir, You report that the RSPB does not oppose culling Canada geese to protect other species (“Thriving alien geese may have to be culled”, May 14). All very laudable and quite likely justified, but hypocritical when compared to the society’s insistence on protecting cormorants. Twenty years ago there were effectively no inland cormorants; now there are 40,000-60,000 inland birds, and they have devastated many inland fisheries. Cormorants eat up to 1kg of fish a day and so are partly responsible for 60 per cent of our rivers failing the EU Water Framework Directives to reach good ecological status by 2015, largely because fish stocks are so low.

It would be welcomed if the RSPB could help to support the wider environment as a whole rather than its current tunnel vision for the protection of birds alone.

Chris Burt

Chelmsford, Essex

Replace offensive words with numbers? It actually happened in Bombay in the 1950s – and there was even a movie too

Sir, Richard Tripp’s suggestion of replacing offending words with numbers (letter, May 10) takes me back to Bombay in the 1950s, when “420”, a section in the penal code relating to “cheating and dishonesty”, migrated into everyday speech as a useful synonym for a petty thief, a crook, a fraudster or a villain. It eventually acquired endearing connotations and became a popular euphemism for a loveable rogue, immortalised by Bollywood in a 1955 blockbuster Shri 420 (Mr 420).

Amir Shivji

Kingston upon Thames, Surrey

A London school’s ‘gay club’ is welcomed, but not without reservations – there are places where adults should not go

Sir, Highgate School’s LGBT club is most innovative; I hope other schools will follow suit (“It’s the school lunch break and gay club is on”, May 13). However, you quote Adam Pettitt, the headmaster, as saying “For a proportion of any given population, that means you can be gay if you want to be.” Mr Pettitt should realise that being gay, bisexual, lesbian or transgender is in no way a choice.

Verity King

Sutton, Surrey

Sir, It is macabre that, when society is unprecedentedly alert to paedophilia, a school should be encouraging its teachers to discuss with pupils their own and their pupils’ sexuality.

Adults might have found their true sexual identity but adolescents are entitled to change sexually and to be free from the interest or advice of their teachers in this area of life. Teachers who affirm shared sexual identity with pupils are out of order.

Underlying this issue is the myth that one is born gay or heterosexual. Parents of a girl where I was chairman of governors were deeply saddened that their daughter was in a lesbian relationship and asked the school to intervene. The wise headmistress said that she could not do so. Two years after school both girls were heterosexual.

School is not the time or place for identifying pupils as having a particular sexual identity. A period of silence from the gay lobby would not be amiss, so that teenage sex and sexuality can retreat again into modesty and reticence.

Homophobic bullying is unprecedentedly common, and I suspect this derives from too much media coverage rather than too little. I trust that DfE will ensure that Highgate School will be the last school to have its own Gay and Lesbian Club.

Patrick Tobin

Chairman, Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference, 1998

Is it really an insult to call a female teacher miss? Some readers were called much worse in their teaching careers

Sir, At St Martin’s Prep School in Northwood during the 1940s, male teachers were addressed as Sir while lady teachers were invariably called Please (“Calling teacher ‘miss’ is an insult to women”, May 15).

Chris Medland

Chard, Somerset

Sir, When I taught in a large comprehensive school in Newcastle upon Tyne, pupils combined the local way of saying yes with the addition of miss, so their response was always a cheerful “Wey aye man, Miss”.

Sylvia Eades

Looe, Cornwall

Sir, In my first teaching year one 11-year-old boy always called me Mum.

Keith Anderson

Liverton, Devon

Sir, At Bedales, where first names are de rigueur, pupils generally have the greatest respect for their teachers.

Pearl Wheeler

Petersfield, Hants

Sir, As a very young teacher I remember a member of my Year 7 form addressing me as Grandma.

Victoria Andrews

West Molesey, Surrey

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