Claes, Willy (1938– )

Belgian politician, secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) 1994–95, with a proven reputation as a consensus-builder. He was a clear favourite for the post, but subsequent allegations about his involvement (while Belgian foreign minister) in illegal dealings with Agusta, the Italian aircraft manufacturer, eventually forced his resignation in November 1995.

He first entered the Belgian parliament in 1968 and became education minister in 1972. Prior to becoming secretary general, he was foreign affairs minister from 1992 and deputy prime minister. A Flemish-speaking socialist, he had risen to high political office via the trade-union movement, and was economic affairs minister three times between 1973 and 1992. In August 1998 he went on trial, charged with receiving illegal income in the late 1980s on purchases of French and Italian arms.

Claes was given a three-year suspended jail sentence in late December 1998 at the end of Belgium's biggest political corruption trial of recent years. Claes and two other former ministers were found guilty after a bitterly fought, four-month hearing seen by many as an indictment of the Belgian political establishment. The Brussels court convicted Claes of corrupt dealings in two defence contracts awarded when he was Belgium's foreign affairs minister.