It is important not to confuse the current french speakers with the people who spoke french in Belgium in the XIXth century and the early XXth and who were flemings to a great extent. All prime ministers of Belgium (with one or two exceptions) have been flemings. But many of them in the XIXth century for example spoke french and looked down on the flemish language. At that time, walloons spoke dialects, like the flemings (who for the most part did not speak dutch then). Thus the distinction was not between french and dutch but between french (which was associated with the bourgeoisie and the upper class) and walloon and flemish dialects (that were associated with the "lower classes"). Unfortunately, this distinction is now forgotten , especially in Flemish collective memory, and walloon workers (who now speak french) are mistakenly associated with the french speaking bourgeoisie of the XIXth century.

Olivier, Brussels, Belgium

Hello all, an American here....
Seems a bit unfair to chastize the lady for not speaking the language. After all, my country elected a man TWICE who cannot speak English.

Barry, Aztec, USA

Chris, the reason everybody calls Flemish Dutch is because that's what it is. The way the Netherlandic language is spoken in (what is now) the Netherlands and in Belgium may differ somewhat, but not enough to consider them different languages. Not that there's anything wrong with saying I speak Flemish, mind you.

The new miss Belgium is a lovely young lady. She does speak some Dutch, but definitely needs to improve, and quickly, if she is really supposed to represent all Belgians, both at home and abroad. Surely a 'national miss' is supposed to do more these days than just look stunning but keep quiet...?

Today I heard a Radio4 programme on the Belgian language problems. 30 minutes later I wondered how much the listeners (and the reporter himself!) would have been enlightened by the various speakers... But judging by the comments from fellow Belgians, I think they're not alone in being utterly mystified. The history of the problems is often, sadly, politely 'forgotten'.

Fik, Beerse, Belgium

I am belgian and have worked in London, Zurich and finally Luxembourg in investment banking. I am from Vise closed to The Nederlands border and i have left the university of Liege perfectly tri-lingual - French-Dutch-English.

I am not sure if i am really proud to be belgian today seeing all this mess from outside Belgium. Flemish ruining their image by showing huge intolerance from French just because they dont speak Flemish or French politician playing liitle politician games.

I am not sure guys if you know it but all these language problems are really misplaced today and completely outdated in today's global economy where neither French or flemish are necessary to be successful or to find a good job (unless you want to work in your region) - with the globalisation of the economy millions of people from China, India or other part of the world actually produce millions of goods and services for western countries included Belgium without speaking French or Flemish . Pathetic....

philippe , Luxembourg , Luxembourg

let's keep things simple, shall we? Would your readers in the UK accept a miss UK who does not speak or understand English? Would England tolerate a welsh government ordering the national parlaiment to install non English speaking mayors in the suburbs of London?
Those of you who answer "yes" to these questions, are feeling something for the frenchspeaking belgian plotical elite, all the others feel sympathy for the dutchspeaking people in Belgium. It is as simple as that!

Hugo Boschmans, Antwerp, Belgium

Why is everyone calling the language "Dutch" and not "Flemish" which is, as I understand it, its correct name? Dutch is spoken in The Netherlands, while Flemish is the language of Flanders.

Chris, COVENTRY, UK

To answer to Niels, I'd say that during the XIXe century, even dutch as walloon languages were considered as dialects. The persons who regarded this languages like this were not the ancestors of the actual inhabitants of Wallonia but richs poeple, middle-class of this time, who spoke French but came as well from Wallonia as from Flanders
The problem is that Flanders is one of the richest region of Europe but also one where the fascist and racist party Vlaams Belang has a very important success (second party in Flanders, 20 %)
In addition, from 1830 to 1960, Wallonia was the richest region of Belgium and Europe thanks to coal mines and iron and steel industry. Wallonia allowed the economic development of Flanders at a time it was only fields. Finally, the quantified informations from Niels about transfer are contested, even by flemsih intellectuals. Flander seems to forget that richness created in Brussels is not flemsih : 85 % of inhabitants of Brussels are french-speaking.

Merlin, Liège, Belgium

You're trapped by the new flemish manipulation : "Miss Belgium" is only a beauty contest not a linguistical examination to become clerk in a bilingual Belgian administration, why should it be compulsary to represent Belgium in New York or in Bejing with the Flemish language ? The qualities and the function of a miss are not the qualities of a business man or of a political man and don't forget that British papers have recently spoken about neo-nazi character of some Flemish revendications ( The Guardian - The Economist) - For most of Flemings, if you speak or don't speak Flemish is not a problem, but you must be a "true original Fleming" - Finally many other VIP or sportive Belgian people from Flanders are not bilingual, for ex. like Kim CLIJSTERS, former tenniswoman...liked everywhere in Belgium.

yves villers, Brussels, Belgium

Is everyone missing the point that a girl is at the peak of her life, winning this contest, only to have it spoiled by rudeness masquerading as a pseudo-political non-issue?

Phillip, Indianapolis, USA

The laugh about this is that the real Dutch almost all prefer to speak English, their de facto second tongue. In my experience the only time the Dutch speak their own language is when they want to talk behind your back.

Flip, Manchester,

To Mr De Koster,

Le Soir and La Libre do not refer to Flemish people as neo-nazis, they refer to Flemish neo-nazis as neo-nazis... which seems reasonable. Thankfully, Flemish neo-nazis are a fairly small minority.

2. Francophone Belgians do not despise Flemish people. They may wonder about the wisdom of a community where a politician of Mr Leterme's... ahem... intelligence can be quite so popular, but they don't despise you.

3. Francophone Belgians are as bewildered by their political class as Flemish Belgians. Of course, each of their main nutty political parties is allied to one in Flanders so...

4. As a non-Belgian with no linguistic affiliations (I speak French, German and Dutch) I can tell you that I have seen no attacks from the Francophone side as venomous as those from people like Bart De Waver and his buddies in N-VA.

And speaking of political responsibility... Leterme - the anthem, Leterme and Rwanda, Leterme and French speakers being too dumb to learn Dutch?

Joe, brussels, belgium

Hum… the legend of the French looking down on the Flemish speaking is not quite as simple. French was spoken by a Wallonian, Brussels and Flemish bourgeoisie while people from in the North spoke Flemish dialects and people in the south spoke… Wallonian dialects, maybe closer to French, but not French. It was a class oppression.

Elise , Brussels, Belgium

Ah, wonderful diversity in Europe. The interesting part of this article is the fact that nearly six months have passed in the country that hosts the european community HQ without a government and all is well. Top stories being a model can't speak Dutch.. Paris Hilton, Posh etc can barely manage one language let alone the three this lady claims.
But I digress, having just spent a wonderful weekend in the belgian countryside where overnight at a 5 star hotel including a 5 course gourmet meal with wine and breakfast is 80GBP per person, the villages are immacculate, the people friendly, the shops diverse and usually family run the questions begs, aren't we better off without (government that is not bilingual models)?

Mark, Oslo, Norway

To set the record straight, there are also a whole lot of Flemish people who believe in solidarity, don't have a grudge towards our Frenchspeaking compatriots and don't mind their money being distributed in both the Flemish and Walloon part of our country. They are proud to be Belgians and love to be called that way (instead of being a "Vlaming" or Flemish). They feel it is a little bit awkward though Miss Belgium has problems with Dutch, but they don't really care: the main thing she has to do this year is 'being pretty'. There is no doubt our country will still be one within ten years, although a lot of people abroad believe, and a big minority of Flemish people hope, the contrary. If it won't, I migrate.

Bart, Ghent,

A bit unfair. The only part of Belgium which is officially bilingual is Bruxelles. There you are expected to know both languages.
In other parts of Belgium you expected to know (and learn) only one of two official languages.
Few Flemish people know French, as few Walloons know
Dutch, its always been like that.
So what's the scandal ?

William, Rome, Italy

From the very beginning of Belgium (1830) the French have always looked down on the Dutch language. It was merely a dialact spoken amongst the paisants in the north according to them. Apparently the names of Vesalius, Rubens, Mercator, Erasmus, Bruegel, ... ment nothing to them. The fact that it were the Dutch that had discovered vast parts of the world either. It must be said that Wallonia was one of the first regions in the world that became industrialised and that it thrived in the early days of Belgium. After both World Wars the Flemish began to believe that they counted too. The last half of the 20th century it is clearly Flanders that is doing very well, and Wallonia that is running behind. Billions of Flemish euro's flow to Wallonia each year, where the political situation is comparable to communist countries.
Still the Frenchspeaking don't bother to learn Dutch. Dutch is spoken by 60% of the Belgians, spoken by 22mio Europeans.

Niels, Antwerp, Be

Well, she certainly is 'miss Belgique', but can she be 'miss België' (the dutch name for belgium)? Last time a french speaking girl was elected miss Belgium was nine years ago, and she was nicely bilingual.
What is really striking about all this fuss is that the people who cling most to 'belgium' and who are proud to be called 'belgians' are native french speakers who are not willing to do what they would have to do to be called belgians, i.e. to learn dutch, but who on the contrary despise this language and its users. In the internet forums of french speaking newspapers (Le Soir, La Libre) there is a frightening amount of anti-flemish racism, dutch being called 'the sounds of dogs and pork', and the flemish being called collectively 'neonazis'. These same people (4 million of them) receive every year a transfer of 10 billion (10 x 10exp9) euros from the flemish people they despise so much. Understand why flemish political parties ask for more financial and political responsability?

Erik De Koster, brussels, belgium