Lode Craeybeckx

He was the successor of Willem Eekelers [nl] as mayor of Antwerp in 1947, and remained in that position for nearly thirty years, a record for the city.

Frans Detiège Alderman for Social Affairs, socialist, and longtime companion of Craeybeckx, fulfilled the position until the end of term.

At the 1976 municipal election, the sitting coalition of socialists and Christian democrats were re-elected and Mathilde Schroyens took office as Mayor of Antwerp in 1977.

There was widespread controversy, but he was nonetheless placed at the top of the Socialist list at the next municipal elections as other party members argued that "someone with so many services given to the movement" could not just be put aside.

[2] According to his biographers, he benefited from support during this serious controversy from the Antwerp Catholic press and of the conservative satirical weekly, 't Pallieterke, which had an anti-resistance position and opposed the purging of collaborators after World War II.