Hubert Pierlot | |
|---|---|
 Pierlot in 1943 | |
| Prime Minister of Belgium | |
| In office 22 February 1939 – 12 February 1945 | |
| Monarch | Leopold III |
| Regent | Prince Charles (1944–45) |
| Preceded by | Paul-Henri Spaak |
| Succeeded by | Achille Van Acker |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 23 December 1883 Cugnon (near Bertrix), Luxembourg, Belgium |
| Died | 13 December 1963 (aged 79) Uccle, Brussels, Belgium |
| Political party | Catholic Party Christian Social Party |
Hubert Marie Eugène Pierlot (French pronunciation: [ybɛʁ maʁi øʒɛn pjɛʁlo], 23 December 1883 – 13 December 1963) was a Belgian politician and Prime Minister of Belgium, serving between 1939 and 1945. Pierlot, a lawyer and jurist, served in World War I before entering politics in the 1920s. A member of the Catholic Party, Pierlot became Prime Minister in 1939, shortly before Belgium entered World War II. In this capacity, he headed the Belgian government in exile, first from France and later Britain, while Belgium was under German occupation. During the German invasion of Belgium in May 1940, a violent disagreement broke out between Pierlot and King Leopold III over whether the King should follow the orders of his ministers and go into exile or surrender to the German Army. Pierlot considered Leopold's subsequent surrender a breach of the Constitution and encouraged the parliament to declare Leopold unfit to reign. The confrontation provoked a lasting animosity between Pierlot and other conservatives, who supported the King's position and considered the government's exile to be cowardly.
While in exile in London between 1940 and 1944, Pierlot served as both the prime minister of Belgium and minister of Defence and played an important role in wartime negotiations between the Allied powers, laying the foundation for Belgian post-war reconstruction. After the liberation of Belgium in September 1944, Pierlot returned to Brussels where, against his wishes, he headed a fresh government of national unity until February 1945. Criticism from the political left and the failure of the new government to deal with the serious issues facing the country following the liberation led to the fall of the government in February 1945 and he was replaced by the socialist Achille Van Acker. Pierlot's stance against Leopold III during the war made him a controversial figure during his lifetime and he was widely disliked in the same royalist and conservative circles from which his own Catholic Party (later the Christian Social Party) drew most of its support. He retired from politics in 1946 amid the crisis of the Royal Question, surrounding whether Leopold could return to the Belgian throne, and died peacefully in 1963. After his death, Pierlot's reputation improved as the decisions he took during the war were reconsidered by historians.