In 2007, opinion polls showed that the new party Lijst Dedecker might stand a chance at the ballot box. This was deemed unrealistic, but, in the end, the party scored much better than the pundits had predicted.

Last weekend’s opinion poll by De Standaard and VRT was definitely not money down the drain. It showed another party emerging. The small nationalist N-VA is not entirely new, but it has recently regained its independence after it split from the cartel with the Christian Democrats (CD&V). The future seemed uncertain for N-VA, but this poll show that there is life after the cartel: if elections were held now, N-VA would get the vote of 10% of the electorate.

What has changed? The cartel has ended, obviously, and CD&V finds it impossible to deliver on the cartel’s election promises. But there is more to the rising popularity. N-VA party-president Bart De Wever, though quite well known, was never very popular before. His tongue was too sharp and his humour too biting for that. All of that changed when he was invited to appear on the popular TV quiz show De Slimste mens ter wereld, or The Cleverest Person in the World.

For over a week, De Wever got the chance to show off his wit (as well as his knowledge of the Abba back catalogue). People got to know the other, less bitter, side of De Wever. On TV, the N-VA party president did not win and become “De slimste mens”, but he didn’t seem too bothered.

No need to be – the quiz propelled him into the position of fifth most popular Flemish politician. Only prime ministers (Guy Verhofstadt, Herman Van Rompuy, Jean-Luc Dehaene) and Flanders minister-president Kris Peeters now do better than him in the polls.

Moreover, the combined result of former partners N-VA and CD&V is 30% – more than they ever attained as a cartel. Bart De Wever may not be the Cleverest Person in the World, but he does seem to have made some very clever moves.