Leterme will be last on the list, but there is no doubt that he will get elected. So will Jo Vandeurzen, who heads the Limburg list of CD&V. This will be some form of rehabilitation for Vandeurzen, who resigned as justice minister last year amid suggestions that he had violated the strict rules on separation of powers.

Both politicians had hoped that the parliament’s Fortis commission would clear their names. That, however, is increasingly unlikely as the commission is stuck in a legal muddle.

This appears to imply that Leterme and Vandeurzen have moved away from the federal level. But does it really? Leterme has yet to announce whether he actually will take up his seat in the Flemish Parliament. He has also suggested that he may become gemeenschapssenator (community senator), which would mean that he becomes a member of both the Flemish Parliament and the federal Senate. All options are open.

Leterme and Vandeurzen are not the only Flemish politicians who move back and forth between the regional and the federal levels. Politicians of all parties do the same thing. Whenever they stand as a candidate, they solemnly pledge their deep commitment to the assembly they want to get elected in… until the next elections come around, and their presence is suddenly needed elsewhere.

With regional elections every five years and federal elections every four, this makes for a permanent state of electoral frenzy. To some commentators, it leads to a lack of courage in our politicians, since they are constantly afraid of paying the price at the ballot box. Skipping an election, and sticking to just one level, is somehow is not an option either. Elections always seem to be “the ultimate test” – a way of bettering a bad result or confirming a good one, and parties need all their best forces. All the time.

In French-speaking Belgium, this electoral frenzy is even worse. This explains why no institutional agreements are possible before the regional elections: no-one wants to give in while elections are on the way.

Flemish minister-president Kris Peeters (CD&V) found this out the hard way. Last week, he had to admit that the “guaranties” the French speakers had given him earlier were anything but. Peeters’ stubbornly sticking to the dialogue with the French-speakers was the reason the cartel between CD&V and N-VA broke up. Ultimately, N-VA – who never believed the French-speakers’ guaranties – was shown to be right.

With all this in mind, it is hard to see why exactly the cartel – the joining of forces between two parties – had to split. This has led to a lot of “cartel nostalgia” within CD&V. Especially with elections coming up.