Only days before, Janssens, on holiday in the UK, had phoned his police chief to make sure that the riots in London had not affected Antwerp. The trouble that erupted in the Seefhoek, though, was of a very different kind: Local merchants, many of them of Moroccan descent, reacted against drug dealers, also mostly of Moroccan origin, cruising their streets.

Janssens did not come back from holidays after the day-long skirmish, leaving the matter in the hands of the deputy mayor and police, but he spoke out on the situation upon his return. In a number of interviews, Janssens, in his typical managerial style, avoided petty politics. But the shadow of 2012 hung over them all the same.

Local elections in Antwerp are always full of excitement. For years, the Vlaams Belang (formerly Vlaams Blok) dominated the vote, leaving the other parties at their wits’ end. That ended in 2006, when Janssens, a socialist like the mayors before him but one with an entirely new approach, made his mark. In 2012, Janssens faces a formidable opponent: Bart De Wever, Flanders’ most popular and most talked-about politician.

In Antwerp, De Wever’s N-VA has just one seat in the city council, occupied by… De Wever. Being part of the majority, N-VA has found it hard to go against Janssens as a policymaker. The 2012 campaign stretches out to a different level, however. Some people suspect that the current federal crisis, leaving the country without a federal government for over a year, is just one long-drawn out foreplay to the 2012 local elections, with the sole aim of keeping De Wever on people’s minds long enough for him to take over from Janssens.

Meanwhile, Janssens states that his forces do everything within their power to tackle the drug problem in the Seefhoek area, but their efforts are thwarted by a failing justice and immigration policy. Things only a new federal government can improve.

Which brings us back to De Wever: He may have been shunted off from the government negotiations, but his shadow still hangs over them.