Take last week. Not much changed. In fact, nothing changed. Bart De Wever's nationalist N-VA is still the winner of the federal elections in June. So is Elio Di Rupo's French-speaking socialist PS. And, three months on, Belgium is still without a government.

Months of negotiating between N-VA, Christian democrats, socialists and greens have brought us precisely nowhere.

An agreement was almost reached two weeks ago, but N-VA refused to provide extra money for Brussels. De Wever insisted on guarantees for a reform of the finance law, which governs how the budget is divided between regions and communities.

And so here we are. As this publication went to press, two mediators were still trying to pave the way for another attempt between the same parties to form a federal government. Di Rupo, still hurt by the crash of the talks he conducted, sniped at the method they used for finding an agreement, for fear it would be leaked to the press. Immediately, that found its way to the press as well, proving him right in some way.

Meanwhile, Didier Reynders, leader of the French-speaking liberals, has offered to join the talks, claiming this would make it easier to force a breakthrough. With the possible exception of N-VA, none of the negotiating parties are willing to accept his offer. Last weekend, CD&V explicitly turned it down.

N-VA is now preparing a "Best and Final Offer" - Flemish negotiators are fond of business jargon - to Di Rupo. That sounds very much like an ultimatum. It also brings back memories from three years ago, when Yves Leterme (CD&V) went through the same problems trying to shape a federal government. At the time, Leterme's struggles were often blamed on his own shortcomings.

Three years on, with no Leterme in sight (except as a caretaker prime minister), we find ourselves in exactly the same situation. Three years is a very long time. Especially when a week is an eternity in politics.