Paul-Henry Gendebien, founder of a Walloon party that wants to join France, has died

Paul-Henry Gendebien, the founder of the Rassemblement Wallonie-France (RWF) party, died on Friday at the age of 84 after a short illness. His family informed Belga of this.

Gendebien, born in 1939, founded the Rassemblement Wallonie France in 1999, a party that believes that Belgium is doomed and that Wallonia should be integrated into France. He remained chairman until 2012.

“He foresaw ‘confederalism’ à la Bart De Wever, or Belgium as an ’empty shell’. He believed that a fully autonomous Walloon region would not be viable and that it was time for Wallonia to return to its natural homeland, France, from which it was separated only by historical accident,” reads an obituary on the website of the party.

Before he founded the RWF, Gendebien had been a politician for various parties. He was chairman of the Rassemblement Wallon (RW) party for a time in the 1070s and was elected Member of the European Parliament in 1979. Gendebien also wrote several books, about his career, his ideas and about the Ardennes.