BRUSSELS – An influential Belgian politician who was criticized for clowning on a racy television quiz show while negotiations to form a permanent government for the country foundered said Wednesday he was quitting the show.
Bart De Wever, leader of the Dutch-speaking Flemish nationalist N-VA, said that taping the final of the show of "The Very Smartest Human in the World" no longer fit into his busy and unpredictable agenda.
De Wever and Francophone Socialist leader Elio Di Rupo are the two key politicians seeking to set up a constitutional revision to give both linguistic groups more autonomy within Belgium. Negotiations for a new government are in their record seventh month. In the absence of a permanent government, financial markets are growing nervous that the political will to cut spending and balance the budget may be missing.
Critics compared De Wever to the emperor Nero, who fiddled while Rome burned.
De Wever, who also drew some praise for his participation in the show — in one episode, he identified famous actresses from photos in which they accidentally had their nipples showing — said that, in addition to scheduling problems, increasing criticism from the media and other political parties prompted him to pull out of next week's final.
