lit a candle 4h agoMy mother in law is from Liège and called us the second she saw it on Sudinfo, thirty years as burgomaster of one town is something you just don't see here. Visé for nearly three decades, that's a whole life given to one place.
Their story
Marcel Neven was a Belgian liberal politician who served as burgomaster (mayor) of his home town of Visé, in the province of Liège, for nearly thirty years, from 1989 to 2018. A member of the Reformist Movement (MR) and its predecessors, he also sat in the federal Chamber of Representatives…
Marcel Neven was a Belgian liberal politician who served as burgomaster (mayor) of his home town of Visé, in the province of Liège, for nearly thirty years, from 1989 to 2018. A member of the Reformist Movement (MR) and its predecessors, he also sat in the federal Chamber of Representatives from 1985 to 1991 and in the Walloon Parliament and the Parliament of the French Community from 1995 to 2014.
Neven was born in Visé on 27 August 1943. He graduated in classical philology from the University of Liège and taught Latin and Greek at secondary schools in Vielsalm, Liège and Herstal from 1965 to 1984, before serving briefly as prefect of studies at the Athénée of Aywaille. He then turned to politics full time.
A liberal activist from 1961, first in the Party for Freedom and Progress (PLP), he was elected to Visé town council in 1976 and served as alderman for sport, culture and education from 1977 to 1988. After the October 1988 elections he became burgomaster, an office he held until December 2018. In all he sat on the town council for 42 years. He was also political secretary of the PRL federation for the Liège district.
From 1985 to 1991 he represented the Liège district in the Chamber of Representatives, which at that time also gave him seats in the Walloon Regional Council and the Council of the French Community, where he chaired the education and scientific research committee. After losing his seat in 1991 he became deputy secretary general of the Economic and Social Council of Wallonia and was active in local government bodies, serving as vice president of the Union of Cities and Municipalities of Wallonia and as president of the education council of French-speaking municipalities and provinces. Returning to parliament in 1995, he concentrated on education and the promotion of sport until 2014. That year he was made a Commander of the Order of Leopold.
Sport was a lifelong passion. From 1975 he was president of the women's handball club Fémina Visé, which played at the top level of Belgian handball. He also helped sustain the long twinning between Visé and the French town of Aiguillon.
Neven died during the night of 14 to 15 August 2026 at Hermalle-sous-Argenteau, aged 82. No cause of death was made public. He was the widower of Chantal Jacob. On 21 August his coffin lay in the entrance hall of Visé town hall so that residents could pay their respects, and staff of the town's technical services formed a guard of honour as the cortege passed. His local MR section thanked him for all he had brought to Visé, and the opposition group Visons Demain paid tribute to the commitment of a man deeply attached to the town and its people.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0, English, French and Dutch), Sudinfo/La Meuse, La Libre Belgique, DH, La Dépêche du Midi and Funérailles Massin. Wikipedia ↗
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1Marcel Neven
by People Forever
My dad's side is from Herstal and he said the same thing, people over there still remember him teaching Latin before politics.