1 hour ago
1
It is a city that prides itself on the art of political compromise. But recently that quality has been sorely lacking in Brussels, which has gone a record-breaking 542 days without a government.
The Brussels Capital Region, which governs the Belgian capital of 1.25 million people, has not had a government since elections in June 2024.
The city has now surpassed the record of the country as a whole, which made headlines around the world in 2010-11 when it took 541 days to form a government, the longest period to form an administration in peacetime.
Brussels, however, like Northern Ireland, which went 729 days without a government, will escape the ignominy of entering the Guinness World Records, which counts only sovereign states.
The unhappy milestone was reached on Tuesday if you include election day, as most Dutch-language media do, although for some Francophone media the record will not officially be broken until Wednesday.
Either way, it is unlikely Brussels will have a government anytime soon. Rancorous divisions, sometimes descending into personal insults, continue among the 14 parties that won places in the 89-seat parliament.
This means deadlock in the self-styled capital of Europe, which hosts the EU institutions and Nato, amid a growing budget crisis, rising levels of drug-related violence, and homelessness as city authorities struggle to manage irregular migrants seeking a place to stay.
An open letter signed by nearly 200 business, academic and cultural figures published on Monday lamented “541 days of seeing Brussels slide into an unprecedented institutional void and funding crisis”. The letter, published in Belgium’s major newspapers, Le Soir and De Standaard, says “political inaction is now affecting our daily lives” and that the “immense challenges that Brussels needs to tackle – economic, social, climatic and institutional – can no longer wait”.
The signatories, who include the historian David Van Reybrouck, the speculoos biscuit entrepreneur Antoine Helson and the political scientist Fatima Zibouh, urge Brussels leaders to meet in conclave on Tuesday to agree a government and budgetary path.
At a protest against the political deadlock on Monday, about 500 Brussels residents booed politicians walking into the city’s parliament, the Belga news agency reported. Some carried signs reading: “Shame on you Brussels.”
The deadlock is the result of an election in which the tax-cutting liberal Mouvement Réformateur party emerged as the largest francophone force, while the Flemish Groen, or greens, came top for Dutch-speakers. Adding complexity to cross-party talks is the fact that the Brussels government has a fixed quota of ministerial posts for both language groups to protect the interests of Dutch-speaking voters, who are a minority in the bilingual capital.
The francophone Socialists have ruled out a coalition with the Flemish nationalists, the NVA party of the country’s prime minister, Bart De Wever. The Socialists claim the NVA is an “anti-Brussels, anti-diversity” party. The Flemish liberal party, the Open VLD, meanwhile, refuses to join a Brussels government without the NVA and has referred to the Socialists as “an alcoholic addicted to public spending”.
after newsletter promotion
The local newspaper Bruzz has forecast that the region’s deficit will rise to €1.6bn (£1.4bn) by the end of the year, and a major bank has withdrawn a €500m credit line.
A caretaker administration is in place, but it is unable to take new spending decisions, leading social support organisations to warn they may be forced to cut salaries after the loss of subsidies. Big construction projects are on hold and investments frozen.
The director of Kanal, an ambitious contemporary art museum that is scheduled to open in 2026, said the lack of decision on its budget meant it may have to halt construction, threatening the project’s future.
Few, however, expect to see a rapid resolution to the deadlock. “In the Brussels region so much is happening and yet nothing at all,” De Standaard’s political editor, Jan-Frederik Abbeloos, wrote last week.
