Deadline 25/5

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March 2014. Marianne Smidt (36) has given up her job as journalist at the Gazet van Antwerpen, a Flemish newspaper. She now works in a book- and coffeeshop, which gives her more time for herself and for her son Seppe (13). Her quiet life is suddenly disrupted when Seppe and his classmates fall victim to carbon monoxide poisoning at school. It turns out to be an accident with dramatic consequences; Seppe is in a coma and two of his classmates and his teacher miss Sandra, a good friend of Marianne’s, decease. There is great speculation on the cause, and although all signs point in the direction of a human error, Marianne suspects a lot more is going on. She picks up her job as journalist at the GvA, because she firmly believes in telling the truth. Always and everywhere.
 
With the upcoming mother of all elections, and the chance of gaining a majority in the Flemish Parliament, the carbon monoxide disaster is not a present for mayor Bert Coenen, who must tread a faultless path, if he wants to beat Willem Vermaelen, the present minister-president of Flanders. After all, Coenen has the ambition to fulfil the election cry of his party ‘Flanders: now or never’ and he wants to win… at all costs. For that matter, he doesn’t conceal his true agenda: a majority in Flanders is a lever for independence and therefore for the partition of Belgium…