Take Jean-Luc Dehaene, who is considered one of the country’s greatest prime ministers. At the time though, he was often called “the plumber” for the way he constructed (often ugly) compromises. He was also infamous for his rather blunt manner. These days, he is admired for his accomplishments, such as state reform and getting budgetary policies back on track. And his ill-refined behaviour? We love it!

Or take Guy Verhofstadt. By the end of his second term as prime minister he had lost all credibility. All talk and no action. Verhofstadt seemed finished, over and done with. He retired to his Tuscan home and came back only to talk about art and inner peace. Soon enough, he was well respected again.

Or Wilfried Martens, who was prime minister of no fewer than eight consecutive governments in the 1980s and early ’90s, during which the state budget spiralled out of control. The times were hard in those days, and to many people Martens symbolised everything that went wrong. Today, people are sincerely happy that he has found love in his third marriage to a former sweetheart, minister of state Miet Smet.

These former prime ministers, some of respectable age, are these days even called upon as “wise men” to help shape new governments. Last week, Martens was asked by King Albert to pave the way for Van Rompuy’s successor. It has been the second time this task was handed to Martens: he was also called in after Yves Leterme’s resignation last year. Verhofstadt and Dehaene, too, have been asked to perform similar missions in the turbulent times since the federal elections in 2007. Verhofstadt even acted as prime minister for a couple of months, before Leterme took over.

So now it looks like Leterme, who has become a deeply divisive figure in Belgian politics, gets a second chance as prime minister. With 800,000 votes, he is one of the most popular Flemish politicians ever. But French speakers, who (mistakenly) see him as separatist, revile him.

Maybe Leterme should not worry about that all that much. Who knows how we will look back on him in a few years?