Biography

In 1954 he became a licentiate in Germanic philology and aggregate higher secondary education at Ghent University, and in 1963 he earned a doctorate in Literature and Philosophy from the VUB (Vlaamse Universiteit Brussel).

Marc Galle was good friends with author Marnix Gijsen. In 1984, Gijsen is said to have asked Galle on his deathbed to look after his estate in the name of his widow after his death. Galle was also appointed to manage the late writer's assets and literary archive with due diligence. In 2000, the Gijsen family filed a complaint against Galle for abuse of trust, forgery and embezzlement of, among other things, 2.5 million euros and two paintings by René Magritte. Marc Galle had to answer for this in March 2007 before the criminal court in Brussels. Because he died a month later, the court declared the criminal proceedings against Galle void and the civil settlement of the case was referred as an inheritance matter to the competent (civil) court of first instance.

Galle was Minister for the Flemish Community in the Martens and Eyskens federal governments from April 1979 to December 1981 and Minister of Home Affairs from December 1981 to December 1985 in the very first Flemish executive of Gaston Geens. He caused a lot of commotion with a proposal to make the regional language mandatory for officials of subordinate administrations. This proposal clearly seemed aimed at the French-speaking mayor of Voeren José Happart, who was reluctant to use Dutch in the Flemish municipality.

Marc Galle was a Belgian linguist and politician for the Flemish Socialist Party (SP).

Among his circle of acquaintances he counted many authors such as Gerard Walschap, Herman Teirlinck, Ernest Claes and Marnix Gijsen.

You know that a diplomat is a man who is paid to try to solve problems that would never have arisen if there were no diplomats

It is said that fat people live shorter, but they still sit longer at the table.

A compromise is a good umbrella but a poor blanket.