One traditional element was lacking, though: bijltjesdag. Bijltjesdag, or “day of the little axes”, usually takes place the day after the election, when the leaders of the losing parties are sent off to make way for a new generation. With so many losers – Christian Democrats, liberals, socialists and Vlaams Belang – one would expect at least one bijltjesdag, but so far we have not seen any. Why not?

With the Christian Democrats (CD&V), the explanation is simple. Prime minister Yves Leterme had stepped aside before the election, leaving it up to Marianne Thyssen, the relatively new party president, to head the national Senate list. Making her a scapegoat now would be one step too far, as her party had lost its credibility in the years before. Leterme, meanwhile, still fancies a ministerial career.

Open VLD’s Alexander De Croo, too, had only been party president for less than a year. He can hardly be blamed for the liberals’ government record since 1999. Even before the elections, De Croo had started acting as an opposition leader. Let’s not talk about the past, he would answer time and time again, when opponents pointed to contradictions between his words and his party’s behaviour. Now he can look forward to being a genuine – rather than virtual – opposition leader.

SP.A also hit a historic low on 13 June, but, for some reason, the party does not consider itself a loser in the elections. Hard times await president Caroline Gennez, though. Over the past years, she has managed to control the leftist dissent, and there was some reconciliation with the socialist union, but she estranged many party members when she refused to make Frank Vandenbroucke a minister in the Flemish government. Will he become a federal minister now? That seems unlikely. Gennez may even enter the federal government herself – another way of avoiding bijltjesdag.

The far-right Vlaams Belang, another loser, has become almost identical with its leader Filip Dewinter. It is hard to see how anyone could get rid of him. Jean-Marie Dedecker, finally, announced on 14 June that he will no longer act as party president. That leaves his eponymous Lijst Dedecker not only in search of a new leader, but also a new name.