This article analyses the discourse of four Belgian political leaders, both moderate and radical, in order to see how they understand the sociopolitical situation in Belgium and how they see themselves in their roles as sub-group elites in a consociational democracy. The material consists of newspaper interviews with these leaders, of whom two are French-speaking and two are Dutch-speaking. The method combines linguistic discourse analysis with framing analysis, and in the former the focus is on verifiable linguistic phenomena, including metaphors. The results show that in terms of metaphor use, the most common source domains are SPORTS, MARRIAGE/DIVORCE, WAR, and CHESS, together with portraying the state as ‘evaporating’. The politicians are torn between loyalty to their own groups and the need to share power within the consociational democracy, but when analysing the discourse of the four politicans differences are found both between the moderate and the radical politicians and between the two radical politicians.