Gamal Nkrumah suspects that the new European President Van Rompuy is two-peas-in-a-pod with Rasmussen, the new head of NATO Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy was nominated as President of the European Union after a stint of only 11 months as the premier of the country where the European capital, Brussels, is located. The Belgian consensus-builder is a shrewd politician from the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders, regarded with suspicion by his Francophone compatriots. For a man who held together a precariously fragile political entity it is only proper that he should wrest the mantle of a far larger political union of multi-linguistic, multi-cultural, multi- religious and multi-national identities. Van Rompuy plunges into a daunting European agenda. This blond dark horse delivered the biggest spontaneous punch in Europe this year with his surprise election. Brussels was on tenterhooks all week, waiting for white smoke to see who would head the EU. At last, American presidents have a counterpart. Even United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has her European equal -- Lady Ashton of Britain. She takes over from Spain's tired old Javier Solana. Unlike Clinton, Lady Ashton is viewed in some quarters as something of a pantywaist, a weakling with neither clout nor vigour. Her detractors point out that she lacks experience to boot. She is embarrassingly short on charisma, so it is not surprising that just about everyone in the British House of Commons likes her. How passionately they adore her is open to question. So much for Europe being a caring Union. Cry a bit, perhaps -- those of a certain generation and a specific ideological orientation, perhaps those smitten with nostalgia. Van Rompuy is Christian Democrat, and as for Lady Ashton -- well, she is Labour, whatever that means. Van Rompuy's two and a half years as president of the European Council start in January, while Lady Ashton assumes office in December -- as soon as the Lisbon Treaty is enforced. Until quite recently nobody expected the European Treaty to come into force so quickly. The Irish referendum and the endless delays in Czech ratification ruffled many feathers in Brussels and across Europe. Then all was magically resolved -- clearly Czech President Vaclav Klaus was given some sort of ultimatum or payoff. This swift and unexpected resolution of the crisis of the Lisbon Treaty came as a gift- wrapped Christmas box, and like the ones that adorn department store windows, one is never quite sure what Santa will produce. The fear of many is that the Christmas gift will contain nothing -- yet another round of empty slogans. Undeniably cuter than poor old dowdy Lady Ashton, Van Rompuy is merely a most conventional politician with a hunch. That was when he was Belgian premier, he was a handful, but something of a halcyon. Now, as European president he might emerge into something entirely unruly. Europe is a bit like Belgium, except that it is far more unwieldy and, of course, infinitely larger. These narratives are interleaved with a sense of optimism, a belief in the ultimate soundness of the notion of Europe. Van Rompuy is a European at heart. He does not mince words or hesitate to stick his neck out. His overarching narratives in his native land promise an piquant presidency for the continent at large. The aboveboard references to the critical importance of Europe's unique cultural specificity are not entirely without interest. Small wonder Van Rompuy has struck a chord among a certain generation of Europeans -- atheists, secularists and religious, in the Christian sense of the word. Now that is a discordant note. The nail-biting fretting about the fate of Europe at stake in this "election" was nonsense to say the least. As far as we in the Arab and Muslim world are concerned, what matters most is Van Rompuy's own rancorous proclamations against Turkey's admission to the EU. Van Rompuy, as a Christian Democrat, has made it abundantly clear that Europe in his perspective is a Christian continent, with a Christian ethos. Van Rompuy is two-peas-in-a-pod with his colleague ex- premier of Denmark Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who supported the publication of the blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed in the Jyllands-Posten in 2005. Though he himself called the boycott of Denmark by Muslims his tiny country's "worst crisis since WWII", he remained unrepentant and was duly rewarded with his current position as secretary-general of NATO. There is no room for Turkey, a country of 75 million Muslims, in Van Rompuy's Europe. He overlooks the fact that he is also the soon to be president of 20 million European Muslims. His victory is a clear signal to European Muslims to put up with their second-class status. And hence, his reputation in the Arab and Muslim world can hardly be salvaged. So, heart duly warmed, we wish him a successful presidency. We also wish that as he presided over so peaceful a period of Belgian history, that he would oversee an equally halcyon era in Europe -- one in which Muslims do have a place.
