Belgium’s political tensions entered the glamour stakes after it was revealed that the new Miss Belgium does not speak Dutch.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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".<\/p>\n
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."<\/p>\n
Poulicek’s victory "is not going down well," the daily said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n