Former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt, 56, is to head the liberal group in the European Parliament, party officials said Tuesday, according to dpa. Verhofstadt, who headed the Belgian government from July 1999 to March 2008, was appointed to the task by unanimous acclaim, a party spokesman told the German Press Agency dpa. Following elections on June 4-7, the liberals are the third- largest group in the parliament, with 80 out of a total of 736 members. However, they are far behind the conservatives (264 seats) and the socialists (183 seats). The group's leader during the 2004-09 legislature, Graham Watson, is contending for the post of parliamentary president. Verhofstadt is a popular figure in his homeland, where he is regarded as one of the few politicians of modern times who has managed to bridge the gap between Belgium's fractious French- and Dutch-speaking communities. He was the front-runner to become the head of the EU's executive in 2004, but was vetoed by Britain in the diplomatic row which followed the Iraq war.
