Herman Van Rompuy now has an official page on Facebook. You cannot be ‘friends' with him, but you can ‘like' him, view his recent photos and learn his thoughts on working life.
On his page, which went live earlier this month (7 February), Van Rompuy muses about his first meeting, 22 years ago, with Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne.
He also publishes an elegiac, seasonal haiku: “Winter fades away/spring not yet alive/a time in between.”
So far, the tally of people ‘liking' the president of the European Council is rather modest, but surely that will change. Van Rompuy is something of a Facebook sensation. European Voice counted 41 unofficial pages devoted to the Belgian politician in several languages. These ranged from a page listing 4,500 ‘friends' to a group entitled “We hate the British guy who insulted Belgium and Herman Van Rompuy”.
Not all were pro-Van Rompuy, although one keen fan had styled Van Rompuy as a Belgian Barack Obama, printing his image in the style of the famous blue and red ‘hope' poster.
Catherine Ashton, who took office at the same time, has just one page on Facebook. The EU's foreign policy chief is liked by 840 people – presumably none of them French.
