Antoinette Spaak

Antoinette Spaak (27 June 1928 – 28 August 2020) was a Belgian politician and leading figure within Francophone and regionalist politics in Brussels. She was born into a noted political family and entered politics as part of the regionalist Democratic Front of Francophones (Front Démocratique des Francophones, FDF) in 1972. She held the presidency of the FDF from 1977 to 1982 and later advocated conciliation between Francophone centrist political parties. This brought the FDF into an electoral coalition ahead of the 1999 election and paved the way for its absorption into the Reformist Movement (Mouvement Réformateur, MR) in 2002. Spaak held various political offices in Belgium and the European Communities until retiring from politics in 2009.