This article details metaphor styles in Belgian-Flemish political discourse. Some scholars complain about uniformity and colorlessness of the modern political discourse. In this 'sound bite culture', metaphor plays, nevertheless, a major role. Sound bites were, intact, found to rely upon these traditional elements of style. The present, empirical, article examines variety in metaphor used by Flemish politicians. The first part consistsof a quantitative metaphor analysis of written press interviews with male and female politicians. The second part presents the results of in-depth interviews with politicians on the subject of their own and colleagues' political (metaphor) style strategies. The conclusion confronts politicians' impressions with our findings on political (metaphor) style in Flanders.
