Brussels - The outgoing Belgian Prime Minister, Mr Jean-Luc Dehaene, admitted defeat after the country's general elections yesterday and said a younger generation should take over at the helm of his Christian Democrat CVP party.
"The liberals have won, but they did not win the most," Mr Dehaene told VTM television after initial results showed the CVP down several percentage points and the green parties the main gainers.
Mr Dehaene declined to give a clear comment about his personal future, but said: "We need a change of generation (in the CVP)."
The protest vote was prompted by the country's recent health scare, with supermarket shelves emptied of a range of meats and dairy produce after dioxin, a toxic cancer-causing chemical, was found in chicken and eggs.