Raymond De Becker

He became closely involved in Catholic and anti-parliamentarian politics in the interwar years and is notable as the editor of the daily newspaper Le Soir and a leading exponent of "intellectual collaboration" in German-occupied Belgium during World War II.

He spent several months of seclusion at Tamié Abbey in Italy in 1932 and returned to establish the Communauté group at Leuven which expounded an ideology of Catholic collectivism.

He set out his views at length in the pamphlets Le Christ, roi des Affaires ('Christ, King of Business'; 1930) and Pour un ordre nouveau ('For a New Order'; 1932) which "testify to the abstraction of his political thought and his attachment to an authoritarian, corporatist and regionalistic régime of a Medieval type".

He was made editor of the mass circulation newspaper Le Soir in June 1940 which had been expropriated from its pre-war owners Rossel & Cie.[1] It was re-purposed to carry censored news and propaganda under German supervision.

De Becker was initially convinced that the creation of a German-led New Order in Europe was imminent and hoped for Belgium to retain some autonomy as an authoritarian state under German auspices.

In August 1943 he attempted to distance himself and Le Soir from German control and adopt a stance that was more sympathetic to the Western Allies.