The Belgian government yesterday presented its resignation to the king following a general election drubbing for the 12-year Socialist/Christian Social Coalition largely at the hands of the Greens.
"Chickengate" was the final straw for a country that has seen scandal follow scandal in the years since the last election in 1995.
A weary electorate simply no longer believed the promises to reform that followed the Agusta bribes scandal, the Dutroux affair in its many manifestations, the suffocation of a deportee in a bungled police operation, and finally the cover-up of dioxin contamination in chicken.
With the bulk of the vote counted, the coalition of Prime Minister Mr Jean-Luc Dehaene's CVP Flemish Christian Democrats, their francophone counterpart PSC and the SP and PS socialists was set to lose 16 seats of its 82-seat majority.
This means it drops to 66 seats, well below half of the mandates in the 150-seat federal parliament.
The liberals, the Flemish VLD and French-speaking PRL, gained two seats to reach 41, while Dutch-speaking and francophone environmentalist parties were seen soaring to 20 seats from the 11 won in the 1995.
The far-right nationalist Vlaams Blok gained four seats to reach its target of 15 seats.
Mr Dehaene said yesterday he took full responsibility for his government's resounding defeat and that he was considering quitting politics.
"In the next legislature I will take a seat as a senator, but at this moment I do not know whether I will complete this term," Mr Dehaene told a news conference shortly after King Albert II accepted his formal offer of the government's resignation.
Mr Dehaene will be expected to continue as caretaker while an informateur, an independent figure, appointed by the king, establishes who is most likely to be able to form a government.
The Liberals became the biggest political group in the country for the first time since the second World War, after voters massively deserted the traditional parties of government.
They will have to decide whether they want to share power with either Socialists or Social Christians, although the latter are certainly more politically compatible. And the Greens - Ecolo in their francophone form, and Agalev in Flanders - could also end up in government for the first time.
Some commentators have urged the creation of a more broadly based coalition, perhaps even involving moderate Flemish nationalists Volksunie, but a multiplicity of parties could enhance the prospect of argument and instability. There was some relief that although Vlaams Blok made gains in Flanders - including a small increase in Antwerp where the party received 29 per cent of the vote - it has not made the breakthrough in Brussels the party had hoped for and which could have blocked the formation of a local administration. Overall in Flanders the far right registered a three percentage point increase to 15 per cent.
"From the north to the south, Belgium is shaken by an electoral earthquake," said the French-language newspaper Le Soir.
"Earthquake", echoed the Dutch-language newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws over a graphic showing the crumbling logo of the CVP party of Mr Dehaene.
"CVP and SP punished", read the headline in Dutch-language newspaper Het Nieuwsblad. A cartoon depicted Mr Dehaene splattered by a rotten egg with a green yolk.