Last modified: 2006-12-02 by ivan sache
Keywords: parti socialiste | letters: ps (white) |
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![[Flag of Parti Socialiste]](../images/b/be}ps.gif)
Flag of Parti Socialiste - Image by Ivan Sache, 31 March 2004
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In 1885, a hundred of workers and democrats' associations joined
together to form the Belgian Workers' Party. The program of the party
was initially discussed by commissions gathered in
Ghent. On 25 and 26 December 1893, the
principles and program of the party were discussed during the
Socialist Congress in Brussels. The
program was definitively adopted on 25 and 26 March 1894 in the
Congress held in Quaregnon, and has been
known since then as the Quaregnon Chart. The Chart stated that wealth
was a common heritage of mankind, so that any individual or group of
individual could use them only for social purpose and in order to
provide every human being with a maximal freedom and welfare.
The party was renamed Belgian Socialist Party in 1945 and
Socialist Party in 1978.
The first president of the party was Emile Vandervelde
(1866-1938), president from 1933, when the office of president was
created, to his death. Vandervelde was Doctor in Law, Social Sciences
and Political Economy, and Professor at the Free University of
Brussels. He joined the party in 1894. The center of coordination of
the actions of the party, founded in 1946, is named Institut Emile
Vandervelde.
Ivan Sache, 31 March 2004
Parti Socialiste adopted on 13 January 2002 a new emblem, made
of a red rectangle (1:2) with the white letters PS in the upper corner. The two letters have
the same height but the P is much thinner than the S.
The new emblem of the party was presented by Elio di Rupo,
president of the party since 1999, as follows (my translation from
French,):
[...]
Today, the Socialist Party is moving one more step ahead in its renovation process. A new emblem shall show to everybody the deep changes which took place inside the party. It ends an era and highlightsour willingness to follow a different politics.
[...]
We want to stress through our new emblem both a taking root and a modernity. A taking root in our values, in a striking history of social conquests, and modernity in a present full of promise and potential for mankind.
Loyalty to our past shall be expressed by the symbolic of colour, the red, and by the symbolic of the flag which was already the main emblem of rallying in the era of Jaurès and Vandervelde.
The primacy of out values shall be symbolized by the emphasis put on the [big] S of socialism, to be compared with the [small] P of party, which has to be more humble. The wish to change the world is stronger than the structure. We are socialists, progressists, leftists before being "from the party". All the tendencies which share our values must be able to "find their place" in the emblematic expression of what we are. Our modernity shall be expressed in a modern, clear and legible style.
Therefore, our emblem shall dazzlingly reassert our identity and our values. The graphical design of this emblem is the result of the strikingly subtle work made by Thierry Brunfaut and his team. Their research took more than one year and allowed us to throw ourselves in the heart of our history and our values again.
[...]
I encourage all the actors of the party, from the local sections to the Emile Vandervelde Institute, to systematically use the new emblem in their correspondence, publications and organization of events.
Source: Website of the Parti Socialiste
Ivan Sache, 31 March 2004