Alizee Poulicek Crowned Miss Belgium Amidst Scandal
It turns out that 20-year-old Miss Belgium, Alizee Poulicek, has been booed by a live audience in Antwerp, the heart of Dutch-speaking Flanders, when she admitted that she could not speak the local regional language. The fact that Poulicek comes from the country’s French-speaking region and couldn’t say a word in Dutch has taken on larger significance among Flemish journalists.
According to Outside the Beltway, the Flemish community accounts for 60 percent of Belgium’s 10.5 million people.
In a country already torn over the Flemish-French conflict that’s derailed the government for months, the issue of language has turned into conflict. Even though it is said that the incident did not hurt Poulicek’s image with television viewers who voted for her, Flemish journalists assailed her with questions at a press conference, highlighting her deficiencies in their tongue.
Celebrity Hit quotes the organizer of Miss Belgium contest, Darlene Devos:
“I don’t worry about this too much. It is the least painful thing. I would consider it different if they had said ‘Miss Belgium is an ugly girl.’”
Unlike Devos, Poulicek seems upset and concerned about this scandal.
“I have to try, learn more. I spoke almost no Dutch when I started this adventure,” Poulicek said.
If the Flemish are hiring American Idol performers to perform at their pageants, I don’t think that not knowing Dutch is such a “big-big deal” anyway. On the other hand, I’m not Belgian.
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