Elio Di Rupo
Europe now officially has its second openly gay prime minister with the swearing in today of Elio Di Rupo as Belgium’s leader.
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir is not only Iceland’s first woman prime minister but also Europe’s first openly gay head of state.
News that Di Rupo is gay was overshadowed by the circumstances of his coming to power. Belgium had been without a government for 541 days. That is a record for a modern government and beat the previous record held by Cambodia (182 days).
He is the first French-speaking prime minister in that bilingual (French and Flemish) country in 30 years and the first socialist head of state in that country in almost 40 years.
When Di Rupo was first elected to Parliament, he was asked if he was gay. His answer was, “Yes. So what?” And that’s how most news accounts have been treating news of Europe’s first gay male prime minister — it isn’t being mentioned. Even U.S. press, such as this report from CBS News is ignoring his sexual orientation.
Belgium becomes the largest geographic area and the area with the largest population to have a gay head of state. Iceland only has 317,000 people. Belgium has more than 10 million.
Of LGBT politicians, Mayor Klaus Wowereit of Berlin, whose population is 3.1 million, moves down the list to No. 2 in number of people under his jurisdiction. Mayor Annise Parker of Houston, whose population is 2.1 million, moves down the list to No. 3.
The language is called Dutch, not Flemish. The people themselves are Flemish. It’s like Americans who speak English and not American.
Technically yes, but most Flemish people don’t refer to their language as Dutch, it is Vlaams (Flemish.)
Belge…. it’s Dutch and you talk crap
In Belgium, everyone is aware of the sexual orientation of our new prime minister. But as Belgians are very liberal towards a gay lifestyle (in my opinion even more then the Dutch) it isn’t an issue. I guess he is more known for his bow tie than for being gay.
The mayor issue in Flanders is the fact that Mr Di Rupo can’t speak Dutch fluently enough. Mr Di Rupo already promised to improve his Dutch.
Belgium is a small but very complicated country. The balance between the (official) use of French and Dutch is delicate.
Historically French was used as the official language (politics, army, university, law…), also in Flanders where people speak Dutch. It was p.e. only in 1968 that Dutch was used in universities in Flanders.
There are cultural and economical differences between Flanders and Wallonia. These differences cause differences in priorities and needs that form the base of the problems in the formation of new government.
In our daily life this language issue is rarely a real problem as many speak 2, (3 or 4) languages. Aggression based on this language issue is non existing.
(Dutch and Flemish are like British and American English. Linguists consider it as two languages, but they are very similar. Flemish speakers can easily understand Dutch as it is spoken in The Netherlands. Schools and TV-news in Flanders are in Dutch. Flemish is more difficult to understand for Dutch speakers as we use many words originated from French. (On Dutch TV, Flemish programs are subtitled, but not the other way around.)
@ Guest: Dutch was introduced into the Flemish universities in the 1930s, not in 1968 ! And some Dutch programs on Flemish TV are subtitled.
Trilingual country*. +German
@Belge 2 : belge is completely correct, so you talk crap.
Technically it is dutch, but there are so many dialects in belgium and a name for this sub-group (dialects) in dutch = flemisch ( ‘vlaams’ in dutch)
@Guest :
The language issue is DEFINETLY a problem, if not one of the biggest. It is true that most people speak 2 or more languages but most of them can’t speak dutch AND french.
In the parts of brussels and surroundings this forms a real big problem.
Dutch people who live in the dutch part of brussels get al their communication from the local authorities in french with no option for dutch, just because the french consider brussels their own and they don’t care if it is legal or not , cuz they consider themselves being above the law.
Lots of them are still living with a mindset from 80 years ago where the flemisch were considered mere peasants who serve the french elitists. Tables have turned and the french can’t cope.. End of story
And we wonder why Europe’s decline continues into a freefall???!!! Grow some balls!!!
to Belge 3,
you sound like a frustrated, angry person.
The language AND the people are refered to as Flemish or Flamand. And the English speak English, Americans speak a dialect of English. We English teachers refer to that language as “American English”.
Officially there is only Dutch as a language, Flemish is not a language. Nationalists in Flanders wish Flemish was a seperate language, but it isn’t. They also wish Flanders was a country, but wishing doesn’t make it so.
Linguists refer to the difference between the Dutch Dutch and the Flemish Dutch as Northern Dutch and Southern Dutch (Noord-Nederlands & Zuid-Nederlands).
The difference is indeed very much like the difference between American and British English. Saying Flemish is a language is wrong, just like saying American is a language is wrong.
“News that Di Rupo is gay was overshadowed by…” sounds very funny to us Belgians, since we don’t even consider it to be newsworthy. Someone’s sexual orientation has nothing to do with his competences or his political views.
Very proud to be Belgian! But a small correction to the article: Mr Di Rupo is not the head of state, he is only the leader of our government. Belgium is a kingdom and the King is our head of state.