Today Stefaan De Clerck is minister for justice once again. Dutroux is safely behind bars, but over the last couple of weeks there have been three successful (at least for a while) jailbreaks. When a TV journalist pointed out that De Clerck once resigned because of just one escape, he reacted angrily, calling her comment "ridiculous" and "inappropriate".

True, the situation is different now. It's hard not to get cynical though. "What's the similarity between the Tour de France and Belgium? Everyday someone escapes, but it is hardly ever a Belgian," one joke goes. Or "Belgium-Holland 37-1", showing the score of escapees in 2009.

De Clerck is responsible for the prison system. What a job! Many of the facilities are outdated and overcrowded, while investing in them is expensive and unpopular. When two of the three Bruges escapees were caught in Morocco, which will not deport them back here, there were cheers on internet forums. Now they are off to a real prison, not one of our "five star hotels", people wrote.

Are these the worst days of De Clerck's career? Probably not. There was the Dutroux era, of course. And a few years ago, just when you thought things couldn't get worse for him, De Clerck was pitchforked into president of the CVP, the party he renamed CD&V in 2001. Someone had to do it, and De Clerck was the unfortunate.

The injured Christian-Democrats found themselves in opposition for the first time in 40 years. Their president, blabbering away, seemed just as off-balanced. It ended in humiliation in 2003, when Guy Verhofstadt (Open VLD) tore away at an aggrieved De Clerck in a televised debate. CD&V lost the elections there and then.

After that, De Clerck seemed mostly content to be the mayor of Kortrijk. Last year he was rehabilitated, though, and he became minister for justice once again. Only for this to happen. One almost has to pity the man.

In case you wonder: yes, he has apologised. For publicly lashing out at the TV journalist, that is. Not for the escapes.