In an almost desperate attempt, De Wever wrote a compromise text, which he claimed would hurt every party, including his own. Within hours of presenting it, two French-speaking parties - the socialists PS and Christian democrats CDH - rejected it.

Once again, no one knows what comes next, as all possibilities (including the King's creative vocabulary) have just about run out. Paradoxically, the reaction of the French-speaking parties seems to prove what De Wever has claimed all along: that this country consists of two separate democracies and can therefore never work.

De Wever has not forced a breakthrough. This may be the motivation behind the French- speaking rejection, as they blame him for Elio Di Rupo's failure to do so. And yet there is some victory in this for him. He has proven himself to be not only a man of principle, but also a man of reason and compromise. His text did indeed include elements that went against the traditional Flemish nationalism his party stands for: it recognised the threefold structure of Belgium (comprising the Flemish, Walloon and Brussels regions), it strengthened the federal state in some aspects and even included some trade-offs for the split of the BHV constituency, which N-VA has always vetoed. Moreover, by putting it in writing, De Wever avoids fresh accusations of not keeping his word, while the other Flemish parties around the table recognise the document as a valuable base for discussion.

The "royal clarifier" had hoped that the French speakers' sense of drama would help broker a deal at the last moment. Now, most observers agree, new elections are unavoidable, although these will solve nothing as the current victors on both sides of the language divide - N-VA and PS - stand only to win even more. In this respect, one wonders if this endgame is really nothing more than an electoral campaign. If it is, then Bart De Wever can look forward to a happy future, as his image as the man who speaks for the whole of Flanders has just been strengthened once again.