Belgian PM’s ‘psychic’ cat fails to predict World Cup scores

Maximus Textoris Pulcher, Belgium's answer to Larry the Downing Street cat, is struggling to forge a new career as a World Cup "psychic oracle".

The grey Scottish Fold rescue cat belongs to Bart De Wever, the Prime Minister of Belgium, and lives with him in his official residence of Rue de la Loi 16 in Brussels.

Maximus' crumple-faced grumpiness has won him 228,000 followers on Instagram.

That's more than his Flemish nationalist master's 219,000, making the famous three-year-old feline the most followed political account in Belgium.

Now it is his foray into football predictions that is making Maximum go viral as he follows in the footsteps of other clairvoyant critters like Paul the Psychic Octopus.

Belgium's "first cat" has been careful to ensure that the legacy of a cephalopod which shot to fame in the 2010 World Cup in Germany is respected. In tribute to Paul, he has taken on the moniker "Octopussy" for the duration of the tournament.

In regular social media videos, Maximus is given the choice of two food bowls at opposite ends of a table decorated like a football pitch.

Each bowl represents one of the competing teams in a given match, a third bowl in the centre represents a draw.

Maximus casts his prediction by walking up to one of the bowls and eating from it.

Paul correctly predicted the winner in 12 out of 14 matches, using a similar food-based future-telling method of picking mussels from one of two boxes.

So far Maximus has not proved himself to be the cat's whiskers when it comes to picking a winner.

He has a decidedly mixed record.

In his debut, Maximus correctly predicted Mexico's win against South Africa. He also correctly chose a draw for the game between the Netherlands and Japan.

But he picked the Czech Republic to triumph in a match they lost to South Korea.

Naturally, he predicted his native Belgium to beat Egypt but instead the Red Devils suffered a disappointing draw.

The celebrity cat along with almost every other football fan, foresaw a Spanish victory in their David v Goliath clash with minnows Cape Verde. In the end the underdogs managed an incredible draw against the European champions.

Mr De Wever, who is very much a cat person, adopted Maximus from a shelter. "I have a cat in my office, it is grey and it does not catch … mice, but I love it anyway," he told journalists recently.

His full name Maximus Textoris Pulcher is a humorous title based on Mr De Wever's love of Latin and Roman history. It means "De Wever's beautiful Maximus". Textoris means "of the weaver" or De Wever.

Mr De Wever is known for his dry sense of humour and sharp debating skills but experts suggest his skilful use of Maximus allows him to present a warmer side to the Belgian public.

Maximus' burgeoning profile has seen him likened to Larry the Cat, who is more politically neutral than his Right-wing Belgian counterpart.

When Mr De Wever visited Downing Street, Sir Keir Starmer introduced him to Larry.

Soon afterwards a post went up on Maximus' account, showing the cat looking at a photo of the two prime ministers and Larry.

"What is this I see here?", a comic book style speech bubble read, accompanied by angry and tearful cat emojis.

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