Friday, January 01, 2010

The second coming of Leterme as Belgium`s premier


Yves Leterme, Belgium's former prime minister who is now deputy secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)


Yves Leterme, Belgium's former prime minister who is now deputy secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)



On Wednesday, 25 November 2009, Belgium named the controversial Dutch-speaking conservative Yves Leterme as its prime minister, succeeding Herman Van Rompuy, who resigned to become the European Union first president.


The 49-year-old Mr. Leterme, although is held unpopular by many people in the French-speaking colony, he got the job because he is the most popular politician in Belgium`s majority party, the Flemish-speaking Christian Democrats.

Although Belgium is relatively a small country with 6 million Dutch speakers, 4 million French speakers and 70 thousand German speakers, it is a country difficult to be governed, because the people are not one. 

This has caused much distress in the country in terms of politics, employment, and distribution of resources.

Leterme as an intelligent politician must be aware that a strong economy is not built on a sand. His second coming to most Belgians does not mean anything but what he is coming to do, is what matters. 

He has a big responsibility on his shoulders by creating more jobs for the Belgians because Belgium lacks jobs. Even before the severe economic recession hit America and Europe, Belgium is one of the leading western-Europe countries with few job opportunities. 

However, comparing the country to other European countries, Belgium is one of the best countries to live in Europe, in terms of the cost of living. Astonishingly employers pay very well.

Another crisis that Leterme has to pay particular attention to is to resolve internal tensions over how much autonomy to grant to the three regions of Wallonia, Brussels, and Flanders. 

Dutch-speaking Flanders want to avoid paying taxes that fund the poorer region of French-speaking Wallonia and seeks to expand its administrative powers. 

But it has so far fallen short of demanding full independence, mostly for the fear of losing its shared political control of Brussels, a majority French-speaking city located within Flanders.

The Belgians are watching him to tackle what they called (aggressive issues) affecting and dividing the country, else his second coming would be seen as meaningless.