But even proud leaders need to sleep sometimes. And that is when things get out of hand… Having just returned from the US economic mission, Peeters suffered from jetlag on Wednesday of last week. After a reassuring text message from one of his ministers, he decided to go to bed, without awaiting the result of a vote in the Flemish Parliament on a new electoral bill. The vote eventually took place in the small hours, in a state of total chaos, leaving the Flemish majority in tatters.

The bill was the work of Geert Bourgeois (N-VA), minister of interior affairs. Among other things, it aimed to reduce the number of provincial councillors, making for a leaner local government. To do this, a two-thirds majority is required, leaving the coalition of CD&V, SP.A and N-VA at the mercy of the opposition.

The Open VLD liberals declined to support the bill, as their additional demands were not met. In the end, the bill was passed with the help of Vlaams Belang – quite unusual, as this party is routinely isolated because of its far-right views.

The vote was remarkable in another respect too. All coalition governments are based on trust, and trust simply evaporated with the Wednesday vote.

N-VA no longer trusts Peeters’ CD&V, as a number of its MPs were deliberately absent from the vote, hoping for a negative outcome. The explanation lies in CD&V’s strong grassroots position in the provinces, but it is really no way to behave as the leading majority party. SP.A, on the other hand, casts a distrustful eye at N-VA, which it suspects of making a deal with Vlaams Belang, a party the socialists actively loathe.

CD&V, meanwhile, fears that both N-VA and SP.A are out to destabilise the Flemish government and, with it, Kris Peeters, the leader on which the Christian-democrats set all their hopes for the future.

That must have been a rough wake-up call for the ministerpresident. Filip Dewinter of the Vlaams Belang, which is crumbling itself, could not have dreamed up a better nightmare scenario.