New Miss Belgium gets Flemish tongues wagging

[Harold Schiffman]

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New Miss Belgium gets Flemish tongues wagging
2 hours, 55 minutes ago



Belgium's political tensions entered the glamour stakes after it was
revealed that the new Miss Belgium does not speak Dutch.
Alizee Poulicek, who comes from the country's French-speaking region,
was booed by some of the 4,000 audience when she admitted that she
could not understand a question put to her in Dutch at the contest on
Saturday night in the main Flemish city of Antwerp.
Poulicek, a 20-year-old language student, speaks French, Czech and
English, but Flemish tabloid daily Het Laatste Niuews headlined its
Monday edition with: "Miss Belgium does not speak Dutch". The paper
underlined that the "community crisis in our country" -- where there
is no government six months after general elections amid bickering
between leaders of the main French and Flemish parties -- "has
insinuated itself into even the lightest sector." Poulicek's victory
"is not going down well," the daily said.

She said she had been taking Dutch lessons before the contest and has
pledged to improve her standard in one of Belgium's three official
languages, along with French and German. The incident did not hurt her
image with television viewers who voted for her, but Flemish
journalists assailed her with questions at a press conference,
highlighting her deficiencies in their tongue. The Flemish community
accounts for 60 percent of Belgium's 10.5 million people. A further
3.5 million live in Wallonia and one million in the largely
Francophone, but officially bilingual Brussels.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071217/od_afp/belgiumpoliticspeopleoffbeat

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