Bride Bridges Belgium’s Linguistic Divide

The 1990s have not been kind to the little European kingdom of Belgium. Political corruption scandals, child-sex murders, dioxin-tainted food, double-digit unemployment, ethnic polarization--dismal headlines have prevailed.

Now onto the scene comes Mathilde d’Udekem d’Acoz, 26, blue-blooded speech therapist and new darling of her fellow Belgians.

On Saturday, in a pomp-filled ceremony that has had this country of 10 million in an expectant tizzy for weeks, the tall blond aristocrat will wed Crown Prince Philippe, 39-year-old heir to the throne. The wedding, for once, gives Belgium’s oft-divided Flemish majority and French-speaking minority something to cheer about together.

D’Udekem d’Acoz’s sudden arrival as a national figure, Foreign Minister Louis Michel gushed, is a “gift from heaven.”

As the nuptials approach, Brussels has been working feverishly to spruce up. New paving stones have been laid along the route to be taken by the royal cortege, where crowds of at least 200,000 are expected to mass. Traffic signals have been given a fresh lick of paint.

Shako-topped royal horse guards have been practicing to escort the couple, who will ride through this city’s ancient heart in a black Mercedes-Benz. The national railway company has declared train travel free on the couple’s wedding day.

A creation of European great power politics in 1830, Belgium in recent decades has become increasingly fractured between its linguistic communities. Effective power is exercised by its three regions: the Flemish- and French-speaking districts and the bilingual capital zone. Predictions of the country’s breakup have become commonplace.

Then this autumn came news of the engagement of D’Udekem d’Acoz to Philippe, son of King Albert II and Queen Paola, serving as a reminder of Belgium’s shaky unity. For though the future duchess of Brabant comes from an aristocratic Flemish-speaking family, she grew up in the French-speaking south and thus has the profile to satisfy both linguistic communities.

Moreover, D’Udekem d’Acoz is in line to become this country’s first Belgian-born queen--her predecessors have been French, Austrian, German, Swedish, Spanish and Italian.

“Simple and chic,” “discreetly modern,” “Queen of Hearts”--such have been the approving labels affixed on the future princess by fawning media. She has been likened to fashion model Claudia Schiffer and Diana, the late princess of Wales.

By popping the question after what he said was a secret courtship of several years, Philippe appears to have boosted his standing. The licensed pilot and former paratrooper had seemed too awkward, inward-looking and charmless to many of his subjects to serve as monarch. Now, a newspaper poll found that almost three-quarters of respondents believe he is ready to succeed his father.

Wedding plans were announced Oct. 9. The couple’s engagement ball, in the royal palace’s indoor gardens, was given extensive live television coverage. A glowing D’Udekem d’Acoz, wearing high heels and an above-the-knees skirt of dark blue, brought a decided note of glamour and modernity to what had long seemed one of Europe’s stodgiest royal houses.

Belgium’s monarchy also has a checkered past to live down: 19th century King Leopold II ran the Congo, his personal fiefdom in Africa, with appalling brutality; Leopold III, sovereign during World War II, remained here after the Nazi occupation and is seen by some as a collaborator.

This year, a book confirmed the long-rumored existence of the current king’s illegitimate daughter.

Post-engagement opinion polls have found about two-thirds of the Belgians favorable to their monarchy, virtually the only popular national institution left outside the Red Devils soccer team. How long the public relations “bounce” will last is anybody’s guess.

“A royal marriage is only as good as the prince and princess,” said Xavier Lutje Spelberg, a waiter in Brussels. “We’ll have to wait and see.”