When Guy Verhofstadt became prime minister in 1999, his government was mostly made up of men and women in their 40s, a new generation with new ideas about family. They decided from the start to take time off during all school holidays.

That is a hard thing to do during the formation of a new government, though. With elections in May or June, formation talks can go on all summer, as was the case in 2007. Bart De Wever, whose party N-VA won the federal elections in Flanders last June, did not even book a holiday this year. Visionary, as the formation – again – drags on.

After the federal election and the clear results it produced, most people were convinced that it would not take long for a new coalition to take shape. The original optimism has changed into pessimism, though, as an agreement about state reform seems just as far off as it ever was.

Some Flemish negotiators feel hostage to the French speakers, personified by Joëlle Milquet, the president of the Christian- Democrats known in Flanders as “Madame Non”. In some Flemish eyes, Madame Non is the source of all evil. Still, she seems to get some things right: unlike De Wever, she went ahead and booked a family holiday, for instance, thereby forcing the preformateur, French-speaking socialist Elio Di Rupo, to call a “family week” for all negotiators.

Meanwhile, tensions grow between the Flemish themselves. The nationalist N-VA and the socialist SP.A, future coalition partners, were once, in their own words, “objective allies”. On election night, SP.A president Caroline Gennez even congratulated Bart De Wever, calling him “my friend”.

Now their relationship has soured, as the ideological divide between left and right pops up again. To make matters worse, former minister Kathleen Van Brempt (SP.A) has infuriated De Wever by accusing him of being an absent father to his four children.

It may take more than a family week to heal the wounds inflicted here...