Charter of Quaregnon

With a doctrinarian charter, the program of the socialist party was presented to the electorate.

Out of several ideas, Émile Vandervelde chose this proposition, which was adopted at the Easter Congress of the Socialist Party, at Quaregnon, near Mons, in Hainaut Province, on 25 and 26 March 1894.

The charter was strongly influenced by ideas of the French socialist Jules Guesde.

As a doctrinal source of inspiration for the Belgian Socialists, the Charter of Quaregnon remained in place for two world wars and many years.

Only after 1979, when the Belgian Socialist Party (PSB-BSP) divided into the Dutch-speaking Socialistische Partij (SP) and the French-speaking Parti Socialiste (PS), newer charters were created.

Émile Vandervelde , pictured in 1919, played an influential role in drafting the Charter