No-one forced Thyssen out; on the contrary, she was begged to stay. Physically and mentally exhausted, she refused, leaving her party of Christian Democrats in a state of confusion.

Presidents who feel responsible for their parties’ losses at the ballot box usually take a step aside the next day. The fact that Thyssen stayed on for two weeks, shows that there is more to her resignation. Apparently, she felt unable to cope with the tensions that rage within CD&V.

Roughly speaking (the truth is inevitably more complicated), there are two camps within the Christian Democrats: that of Flemish minister-president Kris Peeters, who is more regionalist, and that of acting prime minister Yves Leterme, who’s instincts are more federal at the moment.

Many people within CD&V blame Leterme for the state the party is in. In 2007 he became prime minister with promises of state reform that he could not deliver. Along the way, he let go of the cartel with N-VA, which went on to become Flanders’ largest party. Before the elections even, he stood aside, leaving it up to Thyssen to defend the undefendable.

If Leterme had headed the Senate list, he could have stood down on 14 June, making way for a new generation, untainted by all of this. Now, many people feel that he pushed Thyssen onto the glass cliff, only to watch her fall off.

This view is not entirely fair – CD&V agreed on the Thyssen scenario unanimously. But Leterme feels the heat and has repeated several times that he feels responsible for the election result, too, yet he still fancies a federal minister post.

How different the position of Kris Peeters. Peeters cleverly kept himself far from the federal elections, concentrating on his work as ministerpresident. He is one of the few Flemish politicians who can compete with N-VA’s Bart De Wever, this election’s winner, on credibility.

Almost by default, Peeters is now considered to be the real leader of CD&V. Still, it looks like that party, which has always combined many different views, has some shaky times ahead.