Paul Ames's Notebook:

EU appointment leaves Belgium in the lurch

Belgium's prime minister is leaving to become president of the European Union and in all probability leaving his country headed for a mess.

Herman van Rompuy took over as premier 11 months ago as a consensus candidate after the latest in a string of political crises left the country rudderless.

His ability to keep the kingdom's squabbling French- and Dutch-speakers from pushing each other into a full-scale political breakdown was a major factor in the other EU leaders picking the relatively unknown politician to be their first full-time president.

But his move up Brussels' Rue de la Loi ("Law Street") to EU headquarters on Jan. 1 will create a new power vacuum in Belgium.

As political maneuvering begins to find a replacement, two names have immediately emerged: Foreign Minister Yves Leterme, who spent an ill-starred few months as premier before being forced out over a banking scandal to be replaced by van Rompuy, and Finance Minister Didier Reynders, who narrowly survived in the job after criticism over his handling of the same bank takeover.

Reynders would be the first prime minister in decades from the country's French-speaking minority. Leterme is a Dutch-speaker who did much to alienate the Francophones during his spell in charge.

Whoever gets the job will have to deal with the poisonous issue of voting and language rights for French-speakers living in Flemish suburbs or Brussels — an issue that frequently paralyses governments here.

Van Rompuy meanwhile promised to offer all the advice they need from his grand new office in the EU headquarters.

Belgium stunned by cycling champ’s death

Belgian newspaper tributes to Frank Vandenbroucke could hardly have been more complimentary or more poignant.

In the opinion of most sports writers the young man known as VDB could have been the best since Eddy Merckx — the national hero generally judged to be greatest ever cyclist.

It was not to be. Vandenbroucke was found dead Monday in a hotel in Senegal. He was 34.

The death left fans stunned in a country where cycling rivals soccer as a national obsession. Three days after his body was found Vandenbroucke’s death remains a mystery.

First reports said he’d died of a pulmonary embolism after a drinking bout. Then it was revealed that his wallet and mobile phone were missing from the room he’d entered with a local woman. Three people were arrested in Senegal on Wednesday on theft charges. Autopsy results are due later this week.

Vandenbroucke’s career had died years earlier. The golden boy tipped to match Merckx’s legendary exploits after his victory in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic had a precipitous fall from grace. For years VDB 54 professional wins were overshadowed by headlines on doping bans, messy relationships, drink-driving charges, narcotics scandals and suicide attempts.

His uncle said the news of his death on the West African coast was only “half a surprise.”

Handsome and charismatic, Vandenbroucke was once nicknamed the “enfant terrible” of Belgian cycling, but unfortunately he became one of many whose careers and lives have been blighted in a sport undermined by widespread doping.

In the end he never became a new Eddy Merckx. Instead the newspaper Le Soir likened him to a very different legend: “Frank, flamboyant and seductive, was the James Dean of his generation.”

Pro-monarchy Dutch baulk at royal expenditure in a time of economic crisis

The Dutch are often staunch defenders of their royal family. Eighty-six percent think their country should remain a monarchy, according to a poll released on Thursday.

However, that same survey shows that over a third say their support for the royal House of Orange has been weakened by a recent debate over royal expenses and the news than Crown Prince Willem Alexander is building a holiday home in Mozambique.

The prince’s supporters say the idyllic project in a southern African beach resort will help the local economy, but critics say the project does little to aid development and there are growing calls for the prince to pull out.

News of the plans of the heir to the throne for a luxury African hideaway have intensified a wider debate about the cost of keeping the royal family at a time when the Netherlands is being forced by the economic crisis to count every euro.

Politicians on the left and right are demanding a freeze or cut in funding for the royal household saying Queen Beatrix and her family should share the burden of coping with the crisis.

However, the center-right government is pushing ahead with plans to increase the Queen’s income by 30,000 euro next year. Willem Alexander and his wife Maxima get an extra 7,000 euro each. The government has budgeted 39.6 million euro for the royal family which includes 5.1 million euro for the queen in salary and expenses.

Unusually, the far-right politician Geert Wilders earned support from other parties in parliament, when he called for a royal spending freeze. The monarch has also faced criticism over news that royal relatives had opened trust funds in the tax haven island of Guernsey and the court case launched by Willem Alexander against The Associated Press over seemingly innocuous photos of his family taken on vacation in Argentina.

All of which has come at a bad time as rumors persist that 71-year-old Queen Beatrix is considering abdicating after almost 30 years on the throne. However, Willem Alexander seems to have little need to worry. The TNS NIPO poll showed 59 percent of the Dutch want him to succeed to the throne with no weakening of the monarchy.

Clijsters' US Open victory raises Belgian spirits

Supermom Kim Clijsters has brought some much needed joy to her homeland after a dismal sporting summer for Belgium.

Clijsters' victory in the U.S. Open Final dominated morning news reports. “Kim Clijsters makes history at US Open” said the website of leading daily De Morgan. “The exploit of the year,” said Le Soir, another daily.

Clijsters beat Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki 7-5, 6-3 in the final at Flushing Meadows to cap a remarkable comeback.

Two years after her previous U.S. Open win in 2005, Clijsters retired to start a family. She married U.S. basketball player Brian Lynch and in Feb. 2008 gave birth to a baby girl, Jada.
After playing in an exhibition game with fellow retirees, Andre Agassi, Tim Henman and Steffi Graff in May, Clijsters decided to play a few tournaments.

She quickly started to blow away some of the world’s top players. In the U.S. Open she beat both Venus and Serena Williams to become the first wildcard to reach the final, and then defeated Wozniacki to become the first mom to win a Grand Slam since Evone Goolagong Cawley in 1980.

Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy congratulated Clijsters on a “spectacular victory” assuring the tennis star that “the whole country was behind her.” Yanina Wickmayer, 19, who battled her way into the semifinal also did her homeland proud.

For the Belgians the success was much needed.

The country’s soccer team has had a disastrous few months. A 5-0 thrashing by Spain followed by defeat in Armenia means the Red Devils this month have no hope of reaching next year’s World Cup finals in South Africa.

Compounding the soccer woes, one Belgium’s most promising young talents, Axel Witsel, was given an eight-match ban for a potentially career-ending tackle that shattered the leg of Polish international Marcin Wasilewski in a match between Belgium’s top two clubs.

Witsel, voted the most valuable player in Belgium’s top division last season, denies aiming to harm, but the tackle has cast a shadow over the start of the season. Wasilewski won’t play for at least a year.

Belgium came away with no medals in the World Athletics Championship in August, after securing gold and a silver at the Beijing Olympics a year ago.

Cycling idol Tom Boonen, a former world champion, has made headlines this year for his cocaine busts instead of his race wins, making no impact on the Tour de France.

After such flops, many Belgians are hoping Cljisters’ one-time teammate and rival Justine Henin, who retired last year, will be tempted join her on the comeback trail.

Luxembourg votes back prime minister; votes in European elections. Belgium holds vote, too

The European Union’s longest-serving prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker cruised to victory in Luxembourg’s general elections on Sunday bolstered by his defiance of the Obama administration’s tax-haven accusations against his tiny nation.

Juncker’s center-right Christian Social People’s Party captured 39 percent of the vote according to provisional results. Despite a sign decline in support for his Socialist coalition partners, the results seem sure to guarantee Juncker another five years in power.

The main opposition liberal party scored just 15 percent.

In the European Parliament election also held Sunday, Juncker’s party won half of Luxembourg’s three seats with one apiece for the Socialists, Liberals and Greens.

Juncker, 54, has ruled the country of 490,000, since 1995. A wily political operator and skilled negotiator he has succeeded in giving Luxembourg an influence in Europe well beyond its size.

Serving also as finance minister, he chairs meetings of ministers from the 16 nations using the euro as their currency, a position that gives him a seat at major international finance gatherings and a “Mr. Euro” nickname. Juncker is expected to step down as his country’s finance minister, but has suggested he could stay on as head of the so-called “euro-group.”

Luxembourgers are Europe’s wealthiest people thanks to the country’s role as a major international banking center. The Obama administration has criticized its banking secrecy rules and threatened to “blacklist” it as a tax haven alongside the likes of Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.

Juncker has hit back angrily, pointing to tax breaks offered by American states such as Delaware, Wyoming and Nevada and suggesting the U.S. should put it own house in order before looking to Europe tax rules.

In Belgium:

Ecologists and Flemish nationalists made big gains in fractured elections Sunday, but voters dealt a serious blow to the far-right movement which had grown into a significant political force in the Dutch-speaking north of the country.

The European elections where overshadowed by a simultaneous vote for the powerful parliaments in Belgium’s three regions — Dutch-speaking Flanders, Francophone Wallonia and bilingual Brussels.

Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy’s Christian Democratic and Flemish party maintained its position as the most powerful political force in Flanders, with 23.1 percent of the regional vote.

The far-right Flemish Interest Party (VB) scored 15 percent, a fall of almost 9 percent from its score five years ago that ends a 20-year run of election successes.

Two new Flemish nationalist parties were the main beneficiaries of the rightists’ decline. The New-Flemish Alliance and the Dedecker List steer clear of the VB’s strident anti-immigration rhetoric, but they share its demands more autonomy or even independence for the Flanders.

The nationalists’ strong showing will make it harder to revive power-sharing talks with French-speakers in a nation where deep linguistic divisions frequently paralyze national politics.

In Wallonia, the Socialist Party retained its traditional leading position despite a string of recent corruption scandals, falling four points to 32.9 percent. The green party ECOLO was the big winner, more than doubling its score to win 18.54 percent, while the liberals and Christian democrats also suffered slight declines and the far-right National Front was knocked out of the regional parliament.

In Brussels, the Liberals overlook the Socialists to become the biggest party.

Politicians in all three regions were starting negotiations to form new regional coalitions, but the regional horse-trading was unlikely to undermine Van Rompuy’s federal government.

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