PART 1
>*Exactly one year after the regional elections on 9 June 2024, the next Brussels Government has still not been formed. How is this possible? And how does the Capital Region get out of this deadlock?*
>*Barely four days after the elections, Belgium’s German-speaking Community found a new government agreement. Within a month, the Walloon Region and the French-speaking Community followed. And while it took 234 days, a fully-fledged Federal Government has been in charge of the country since February 2025.*
>*The Brussels-Capital Region, however, seems to be a tougher nut to crack this time around, explains political scientist Dave Sinardet (VUB).*
>*”In the past, the Brussels Government was always one of the first to be formed – usually about a month after the elections,” he told The Brussels Times. “But looking at the situation, it is perhaps a miracle that it hasn’t gone wrong earlier.”*
>*The Capital Region’s electoral and government formation system is very complex: parties cannot submit mixed-language lists but have to work with two separate electoral colleges: a Dutch-speaking and a French-speaking one.*
>*The Brussels Parliament is made up of 89 seats – 17 on the Dutch-speaking, and 72 on the French-speaking side. After the elections, both language groups need to find a majority on their own side: a Flemish team with at least nine seats in the Parliament and a Francophone one with at least 37. These two groups then form one unified government for the entire Brussels-Capital Region.*
>*”The system definitely does not make the process of forming a government any easier. And this is just maths, we have not even gone into the parties’ political standpoints,” Sinardet explained.*
>*Extra difficult cards*
>*The election results are making the government formation exceptionally difficult – much more so than usual, he admits.*
>*”At the federal level, many people feared that Flemish and Walloon people would vote even more differently than in the past, that radical parties would rise further, and that traditional parties would become more fragmented,” he said. “This did not really happen nationally, but all of it happened in Brussels.”*
>*The results in the Dutch- and French-speaking electoral colleges were very different: while right-wing liberal MR became the largest party on the French-speaking side, the progressive green Groen party won convincingly on the Flemish side. “On pretty much all levels, they are polar opposites,” Sinardet said.*
>*Secondly, radical parties are gaining ground: the radical left Belgian Workers’ Party PTB-PVDA made significant gains, and many also see the controversial regionalist newcomer Team Fouad Ahidar as a radical party. “In any case, many others do not want to cooperate with the party (yet). But they won three seats out of 17 in the Dutch electoral college – that’s not nothing.”*
>*And thirdly, fragmentation is also greater in Brussels: on the Flemish side of things, they need four parties to find a majority, while the system – which only provides three ministerial positions – is only designed for three coalition partners.*
>*On the French-speaking side, Sinardet explained that it is not so simple either. “In the Walloon Region and the French-speaking Community, MR and centrist Les Engagés have a majority together. But not in Brussels.”*
>*Due to this fragmentation, the two parties are forced to include either the socialist PS on one hand, or greens Ecolo and regionalist DéFI on the other. “As a result, they need more parties, and therefore have to reconcile more opposites.”*
>*A stillborn proposal*
>*Still, Sinardet stressed, the election results are not an excuse. “Sometimes the cards that are dealt are difficult, but the parties just have to play with them. Instead, they are getting bogged down in all kinds of vetoes and exclusions, party politics and strategies.”*
>*At the end of May, MR presented an 80-page policy statement to “save Brussels” in a supposed attempt to bring all “willing” parties around the table. For Sinardet, this was nothing more than a communication stunt – and not necessarily a good one either.*
>*”You know in advance that it is not going to work,” he said. “There is no majority for the text, but it is also a strange way of working: they propose a text like that without having consulted enough parties to get a majority.”*
>*According to him, MR is well aware of the fact that they do not have enough support for this text. “MR is just using this meeting so they can say ‘look, we are doing our best, it’s the others who do not want it.’ But they know full well that this will not lead anywhere. The so-called ‘effort’ is a bit of a stillborn child, really.”*
>*In the same week, PS launched an initiative to form a progressive coalition and had talks with PTB-PVDA, Ecolo, Groen, Team Fouad Ahidar and Dutch-speaking socialist Vooruit.*
>*While Sinardet feels “more or less the same” about the PS initiative as about the MR one, he admits that PS at least brought together six parties that do have a majority in both language groups. “So they are certainly a step further than MR, but that is where it ends.”*
>*No government before autumn*
>*He speaks of “many stumbling blocks” on to way to such a left-wing coalition, not least the question of whether PTB-PVDA would even be willing to join the government. In the past, the party has always pursued a strategy of remaining in opposition.*
>*”After the local elections in October, they have now joined a few local governments in several Brussels municipalities. So they may change their strategy. But I do not think there’s much chance of them doing so in this context, which is one of severe austerity measures – not exactly something a radical left-wing party would want to get involved in.”*
>*And even if they do take that leap, Sinardet considers it “very unlikely” that the other parties are willing to form a government with them.*
>*The biggest problem is that MR and PS are ultimately both needed to form the government in Brussels, he believes. “But they have not been talking to each other for months. In fact, they are both trying to form a coalition separately. But these initiatives could be interpreted as a way of demonstrating to their voters that they have tried their best not to include the other party, but that it is impossible.”*
>*However, we are not anywhere near a new government yet, Sinardet fears. “It will be autumn, at the earliest. Maybe people will have some time to think about everything over the summer. But I am afraid it will not be any sooner than that. Unless a miracle happens.”*
>*Before it comes to that, however, the Capital Region is marking a full year without a government. While symbolically very significant, Sinardet underscored that there are no real consequences for politicians. Meanwhile, Brussels residents are the only ones affected.*
>*”While the big agencies will of course continue to run, no policy can be made. That means, for example, that the budget deficit cannot be reduced, but also that certain organisations and projects can no longer receive funding, leading to uncertainty,” he said.*
> Where do we come from, where do we go?
Where do you come from, Cotton Eye Joe?
Brussels sits on 234% debt to tax revenue and a 20% deficit. Debt financing is going to double from 395 mil to 634 mil if nothing is done.
At this point I don’t give a shit who forms a coaliton as long as they DO SOMETHING about this (wich will be the MR because the PS is the reason that they’re in this mess). Or the alternative is federal intervention from De Wever, wich I would welcome because BY GOD Brussels is a mess.
Have elected officials that actually live in Brussels and serve the interests of Brussels, not their party leaders in Flanders and Wallonia. That would be a good start.
But most here are outright for Flemish annexation of Brussels. A pipe dream sold to them in History class.
[deleted]
I’ll tell you what you need to do: get rid of the PS and move forward. The PS will bankrupt the city before they see the severity of any situation, just because they know their ridiculous spending buys them voters and they don’t have to care about the consequences
Politics isn’t made for common people… it is a circus, the more you know the more clowns you meet. The majority of clowns are mostly tragic although they do not it themselves…
10 comments
PART 1
>*Exactly one year after the regional elections on 9 June 2024, the next Brussels Government has still not been formed. How is this possible? And how does the Capital Region get out of this deadlock?*
>*Barely four days after the elections, Belgium’s German-speaking Community found a new government agreement. Within a month, the Walloon Region and the French-speaking Community followed. And while it took 234 days, a fully-fledged Federal Government has been in charge of the country since February 2025.*
>*The Brussels-Capital Region, however, seems to be a tougher nut to crack this time around, explains political scientist Dave Sinardet (VUB).*
>*”In the past, the Brussels Government was always one of the first to be formed – usually about a month after the elections,” he told The Brussels Times. “But looking at the situation, it is perhaps a miracle that it hasn’t gone wrong earlier.”*
>*The Capital Region’s electoral and government formation system is very complex: parties cannot submit mixed-language lists but have to work with two separate electoral colleges: a Dutch-speaking and a French-speaking one.*
>*The Brussels Parliament is made up of 89 seats – 17 on the Dutch-speaking, and 72 on the French-speaking side. After the elections, both language groups need to find a majority on their own side: a Flemish team with at least nine seats in the Parliament and a Francophone one with at least 37. These two groups then form one unified government for the entire Brussels-Capital Region.*
>*”The system definitely does not make the process of forming a government any easier. And this is just maths, we have not even gone into the parties’ political standpoints,” Sinardet explained.*
>*Extra difficult cards*
>*The election results are making the government formation exceptionally difficult – much more so than usual, he admits.*
>*”At the federal level, many people feared that Flemish and Walloon people would vote even more differently than in the past, that radical parties would rise further, and that traditional parties would become more fragmented,” he said. “This did not really happen nationally, but all of it happened in Brussels.”*
>*The results in the Dutch- and French-speaking electoral colleges were very different: while right-wing liberal MR became the largest party on the French-speaking side, the progressive green Groen party won convincingly on the Flemish side. “On pretty much all levels, they are polar opposites,” Sinardet said.*
>*Secondly, radical parties are gaining ground: the radical left Belgian Workers’ Party PTB-PVDA made significant gains, and many also see the controversial regionalist newcomer Team Fouad Ahidar as a radical party. “In any case, many others do not want to cooperate with the party (yet). But they won three seats out of 17 in the Dutch electoral college – that’s not nothing.”*
>*And thirdly, fragmentation is also greater in Brussels: on the Flemish side of things, they need four parties to find a majority, while the system – which only provides three ministerial positions – is only designed for three coalition partners.*
>*On the French-speaking side, Sinardet explained that it is not so simple either. “In the Walloon Region and the French-speaking Community, MR and centrist Les Engagés have a majority together. But not in Brussels.”*
>*Due to this fragmentation, the two parties are forced to include either the socialist PS on one hand, or greens Ecolo and regionalist DéFI on the other. “As a result, they need more parties, and therefore have to reconcile more opposites.”*
>*A stillborn proposal*
>*Still, Sinardet stressed, the election results are not an excuse. “Sometimes the cards that are dealt are difficult, but the parties just have to play with them. Instead, they are getting bogged down in all kinds of vetoes and exclusions, party politics and strategies.”*
>*At the end of May, MR presented an 80-page policy statement to “save Brussels” in a supposed attempt to bring all “willing” parties around the table. For Sinardet, this was nothing more than a communication stunt – and not necessarily a good one either.*
>*”You know in advance that it is not going to work,” he said. “There is no majority for the text, but it is also a strange way of working: they propose a text like that without having consulted enough parties to get a majority.”*
>*According to him, MR is well aware of the fact that they do not have enough support for this text. “MR is just using this meeting so they can say ‘look, we are doing our best, it’s the others who do not want it.’ But they know full well that this will not lead anywhere. The so-called ‘effort’ is a bit of a stillborn child, really.”*
>*In the same week, PS launched an initiative to form a progressive coalition and had talks with PTB-PVDA, Ecolo, Groen, Team Fouad Ahidar and Dutch-speaking socialist Vooruit.*
>*While Sinardet feels “more or less the same” about the PS initiative as about the MR one, he admits that PS at least brought together six parties that do have a majority in both language groups. “So they are certainly a step further than MR, but that is where it ends.”*
>*No government before autumn*
>*He speaks of “many stumbling blocks” on to way to such a left-wing coalition, not least the question of whether PTB-PVDA would even be willing to join the government. In the past, the party has always pursued a strategy of remaining in opposition.*
>*”After the local elections in October, they have now joined a few local governments in several Brussels municipalities. So they may change their strategy. But I do not think there’s much chance of them doing so in this context, which is one of severe austerity measures – not exactly something a radical left-wing party would want to get involved in.”*
>*And even if they do take that leap, Sinardet considers it “very unlikely” that the other parties are willing to form a government with them.*
>*The biggest problem is that MR and PS are ultimately both needed to form the government in Brussels, he believes. “But they have not been talking to each other for months. In fact, they are both trying to form a coalition separately. But these initiatives could be interpreted as a way of demonstrating to their voters that they have tried their best not to include the other party, but that it is impossible.”*
>*However, we are not anywhere near a new government yet, Sinardet fears. “It will be autumn, at the earliest. Maybe people will have some time to think about everything over the summer. But I am afraid it will not be any sooner than that. Unless a miracle happens.”*
>*Before it comes to that, however, the Capital Region is marking a full year without a government. While symbolically very significant, Sinardet underscored that there are no real consequences for politicians. Meanwhile, Brussels residents are the only ones affected.*
>*”While the big agencies will of course continue to run, no policy can be made. That means, for example, that the budget deficit cannot be reduced, but also that certain organisations and projects can no longer receive funding, leading to uncertainty,” he said.*
> Where do we come from, where do we go?
Where do you come from, Cotton Eye Joe?
Brussels sits on 234% debt to tax revenue and a 20% deficit. Debt financing is going to double from 395 mil to 634 mil if nothing is done.
At this point I don’t give a shit who forms a coaliton as long as they DO SOMETHING about this (wich will be the MR because the PS is the reason that they’re in this mess). Or the alternative is federal intervention from De Wever, wich I would welcome because BY GOD Brussels is a mess.
Have elected officials that actually live in Brussels and serve the interests of Brussels, not their party leaders in Flanders and Wallonia. That would be a good start.
But most here are outright for Flemish annexation of Brussels. A pipe dream sold to them in History class.
[deleted]
I’ll tell you what you need to do: get rid of the PS and move forward. The PS will bankrupt the city before they see the severity of any situation, just because they know their ridiculous spending buys them voters and they don’t have to care about the consequences
Politics isn’t made for common people… it is a circus, the more you know the more clowns you meet. The majority of clowns are mostly tragic although they do not it themselves…
Why the fuck should we (Flanders) intervene?
Does sharia need a government to work? /s
eat the shit pie you ordered
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