| Paul-Henry Gendebien | |
| Birth Date: | 1939 7, df=y |
| Birth Place: | Hastière, Belgium |
| Death Place: | Liège, Belgium |
| Nationality: | Belgian |
| Occupation: | Economist |
| Education: | Saint-Louis University, Brussels Catholic University of Louvain |
| Party: | PSC RW RWF |
| Office: | President of the Rassemblement Wallonie France |
| Term Start: | 1999 |
| Term End: | 3 May 2024 |
| Office2: | Member of the European Parliament for the French-speaking electoral college |
| Term Start2: | 17 July 1979 |
| Term End2: | 23 July 1984 |
| Office3: | Member of the Chamber of Representatives of Belgium |
| Term Start3: | 1985 |
| Term End3: | 1988 |
| Term Start4: | 1971 |
| Term End4: | 1981 |
Paul-Henry Gendebien (9 July 1939 – 3 May 2024) was a Belgian economist and politician of the Walloon Rally (RW) and the Rassemblement Wallonie France (RWF).[1] He was descended from Alexandre Gendebien, who was Belgium's first Minister of Justice.
Born in Hastière on 9 July 1939, he was the son of World War II pilot Marc Gendebien and Guillemette Carton de Wiart, who herself was the daughter of former Prime Minister Henry Carton de Wiart. He earned a Doctor of Laws in 1962 and a licentiate in economic sciences in 1964 from Saint-Louis University, Brussels and subsequently studied at the Catholic University of Louvain. After his studies, he became a researcher at the and was an assistant professor at the University of Kinshasa from 1965 to 1967.[2] From 1968 to 1971, he directed the economic research office at the Province of Hainaut.
In response to the Leuven Affair, Gendebien left the Christian Social Party and joined the Walloon Rally (RW). In 1971, he was elected to the Chamber of Representatives and,[3] in 1979, he was elected as a member of the European Parliament.[4] However, he left the party in 1981 to join the Alliance démocratique wallonne and eventually settled with the Rassemblement Wallonie France, that he founded and became president in 1999.[5]
Gendebien favored a split of Belgium similar to that of the dissolution of Czechoslovakia and an integration of Wallonia and Brussels into France. He also denounced the "Flemishization" of the Belgian state by the armed forces and the National Railway Company.[6] [7]
Paul-Henry Gendebien died in Liège on 3 May 2024, at the age of 84.[8]