The Christian Democrat has been given a royal assignment to find a solution to the seemingly unsolvable issue of Brussels- Halle-Vilvoorde (BHV) – the bilingual constituency that threatens this country’s linguistic equilibrium. With Dehaene’s formidable reputation, it is no wonder that the king thought of him as practically the only person who could lift this millstone from the federal government’s neck.

The former prime minister is working on it in his own typical way: with the utmost discretion and none of the media leaks and inflated doorstep declarations that usually accompany these talks. To him, this has always been the only way to move forward. Is he making any progress right now? Maybe, maybe not. We simply do not know.

At the same time, Dehaene has made headlines in an entirely different matter, as he is also linked to AB Inbev, the Leuven-based beer giant that, despite being profitable, planned to slash more than 200 jobs. His post as an independent on AB Inbev’s board of directors means that Dehaene can look forward to huge bonuses. This looks a lot like cashing in while ordinary people are losing their jobs and conflicts sharply with Dehaene’s roots as a social Christian Democrat.

This conflict is something that that union leaders and political rivals never failed to point out and has made some of his fellow Christian Democrats quite nervous. Dehaene himself has never commented on this. Who cares about perception anyway? A 20thcentury politician certainly does not.

After fierce industrial action, which nearly resulted in a beer shortage, AB Inbev decided to reconsider its cost-cutting plans. For now, it looks like the Leuven jobs are saved. Did Dehaene play any part in this? Maybe, maybe not. We simply do not know.

So what do we know about Dehaene’s role at this moment? Very little, except that, sometimes, the 20thcentury formulas seem the only ones left in the 21st. We can only hope that they work in the case of BHV.