The Belgian prime minister Herman Van Rompuy got elected for EU presedency on the EU special meeting taking place on 19th of November. But who is this man?

On Thursday the 19th of November was the election for EU presidency. Herman Van Rompuy, the centre-right Belgian prime minister, was elected for the first president of the European Council. Favourite candidates were Tony Blair from Great Britain and more surprising Herman Van Rompuy. Of course Tony Blair is the more famous candidate of them two, but also the most controversial. Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, president of Germany and France, were standing behind the Belgian Van Rompuy since a few days. But what was the British press saying about this knew unknown Belgian politican?

The Telegraf was describing Van Rompuy as a haiku-loving Belgian. Because he likes writing Japanese-styled poetry called haiku. They further said that “Mr Van Rompuy is regarded as the ‘safe’ anti-Tony Blair choice for Germany and the smaller ‘dwarves gang’ of EU countries”. That sounds like they are against Germany’s choice. Characterized by the Guardian, the new EU president is a grey-haired bureaucrat who writes on his own homepage more about his haiku then of his politics. The Times Online was reporting in a similar way and described Herman Van Rompuy as a “harmless ‘nice guy’”. That was before the election was taken place.

The British newspapers personated Rompuy in general as unknown, shy and harmless guy. Certainly they weren’t convinced by their compatriot Blair but they didn’t really believe that such an international unknown man could be elected for presidency.

Sources: telegraf.co.uk, guardian.co.uk, timesonline,

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