Belgium's likely PM aims to unite but is divisive

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgium's likely next prime minister, Yves Leterme, espouses Belgian unity but has angered nearly half the nation with swipes at their linguistic ability.

The 46-year-old Christian Democrat and premier of the Dutch-speaking Flanders regional government, won more than 31 percent of the vote in Sunday's national election, drubbing Liberal Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, who has been in power for eight years.

In a victory speech, he called for a "modern restructuring of the state" and vowed to work with all parties that want to work constructively, raising the possibility of a broad "grand coalition" to reform the federal constitution.

Leterme, of mixed Walloon and Flemish parentage, says he embodies Belgium's diversity, supporting French-speaking soccer team Standard Liege. He may nevertheless be a divisive figure.

He told French newspaper Liberation last year it appeared Francophones were not intelligent enough to learn Dutch.

While aides in his centre-right party played the comment down as humor, Leterme backed away only slightly from his barb.

"I understood from the reaction I got that it is not a question of not being able to speak Dutch," he told Reuters in an interview on Friday.

"It's just that for some of them, they don't want to speak Dutch, and I think that proves that these people don't like the culture very much."

A fan of cycling, one of the nation's favorite sports and the few in which it excels, Leterme said recently the only things Belgians have in common are the king, the national soccer team, known as the "Red Devils", and beer.

REGIONALISATION

Leterme said he would give more power to the regional governments, a move unlikely to please the Walloons, who once ruled the roost in Belgium but now feel like poor relations.

Asked if regionalization would tear the country apart, Leterme said: "No, the opposite. The problem is that for the moment we have totally different economic evolutions."

Wallonia, once a coal and steel powerhouse, has far higher unemployment than Flanders and is subsidized by the more affluent northern region.

Leterme, married with three children, wants to tackle Belgium's high labor costs and unemployment benefit for life, which make it unattractive to hire workers or to take a job.

Party officials insist this will not be at the expense of social protection such as better rights for mothers. Employment problems can be solved by re-training programs and investment in innovation, they contend.

While Leterme may be divisive at home, he is likely to follow in Verhofstadt's footsteps as a fervent European.

A former European Commission official, he singled out German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Dutch Premier Jan Balkenende as the European Union leaders to whom he feels closest.

He also said there is no place for Turkey in the EU, because that would take the bloc too close to "unstable" Iraq.