RECONSTRUCTION. A secret meeting, an agreement between former party members and a minister who puts on his scarf and leaves: this was Jan Jambon’s (N-VA) nitrogen weekend. “We can push CD&V out, can’t we?” | Nitrogen file

It started Friday, with 2,800 angry drills with their tractor in Brussels. It ended on Sunday night, with Hilde Crevits openly wondering whether there was still room for CD&V in the Flemish government. “That they say it when they want us out,” she said shortly before midnight. It was already clear then that Prime Minister Jan Jambon (N-VA) would not conclude his nitrogen agreement before the deadline. “But I did everything I could.” A reconstruction of 55 hours of unbearable tension, sad hopelessness and bitter disappointment.