In European Union diplomatic circles, the name Herman Van Rompuy has largely replaced that of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair when it comes to a first EU president.

Since Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy indicated they would not support a bid by Blair, the newest leaders in the race for president of the EU are Van Rompuy, the current prime minister of Belgium, and Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende.

Sarkozy and Merkel called the 62-year-old Van Rompuy after a dinner in Paris on Oct. 28 "to tell him that they were thinking about him for the European president's job," the Brussels daily Le Soir reported Friday.

Unconfirmed sources indicate that the Belgian leader is interested in the position.

Unwelcome news

But on the home front, Belgians were not overjoyed by the news that their leader could be up for a big promotion.

News commentators spent Friday publishing their concerns that Van Rompuy was needed more on the domestic front than in Europe.

"His departure, if it is confirmed, could well throw the country into a new period of turbulence," warned the weekly magazine Le Vif-L'Express.

"It is an honor that the country could have done without."

Domestic success means EU potential

Van Rompuy is credited with being a great unifier in a country that is often split along linguistic and cultural lines, between the richer Dutch-speaking Flanders to the north and poorer, Francophone Wallonia to the south.

The Flemish want more autonomy whereas the Walloons to the south fear this would lead to an irreversible schism. Between June 2007 and December 2009, Belgium's government changed hands three times as Flanders and Wallonia argued over the division of power and money between them.

Van Rompuy's ability to step across the divide and run the nation as a moderator and consensus-builder, despite linguistic differences, is what makes him indispensable to his countrymen.

But it's exactly these traits that make him attractive to the EU's political elite, also.

"How would it help Belgium to give Europe a president if he ended up semi-stateless or linked to a state on the verge of collapse?" wrote Beatrice Delvaux, chief editor of Le Soir.

sjt/AFP/dpa
Editor: Kyle James