He was co-founder of the Vlaamsche volkspartij (1892), and was a proponent of the use of Dutch instead of French at the University of Ghent in Flanders (north part of Belgium).
As a co-founder of the Vlaamsche volkspartij in 1892, he championed the use of Dutch instead of French at the University of Ghent in Flanders, a region in northern Belgium with strong cultural ties to the Netherlands.