Shootings,
debt and political paralysis show Brussels is falling apart
Losing €4
million a day and without a government, Belgium’s capital is in desperate need
of leadership.
The
capital's debt stands at over €14 billion, without counting the €1.6 billion
it’s projected to add to that this year. |
April 14,
2025 4:37 am CET
By Hanne
Cokelaere
BRUSSELS ― A
string of fatal drug-related shootings in the heart of the city that houses the
EU’s institutions has brought home just how far Brussels has fallen: bankrupt,
plagued by violence and crime, and politically wrecked.
In the first
month and a half of this year alone, 11 shootings claimed the lives of two
people and injured another four. They haven’t stopped. Unthinkable just a few
years ago, the attacks betray a city in sharp decline and reveal the desperate
need for some strong political leadership.
But Brussels
doesn’t have any.
Belgium’s
labyrinthine political structure contains a multilayered system of government,
each with its own powers and often beset by infighting. When they work, things
are fine, but when they don’t, paralysis results. And things don’t get much
more paralyzed than in the Brussels region where, nine months after the
election, politicians are still arguing with no government in sight.
It’s not
just the coordination of Brussels’ crime-fighting that has been exposed by the
political mess. The construction of social housing and major infrastructure
projects also risks being delayed. Subsidies — such as for charities, NGOs and
cultural projects — are frozen. Funding for social welfare centers, police and
local authority work is shrouded in uncertainty. Public debt is piling up
almost as quickly as the garbage bags on the dirty streets.
“It really
is the survival of Brussels, as a city, that’s at stake,” said Christophe De
Beukelaer, a centrist MP.
The scandal
of €4 million a day
Away from
the tourist-thronged neo-gothic Grand-Place, the cute chocolate shops and
flamboyant beer halls, this is a city on the brink.
If the city
had a government, getting Brussels’ spending under control would be its No. 1
challenge.
The
capital’s debt stands at over €14 billion, without counting the €1.6 billion it
is projected to add to that this year. Belgian newspaper Bruzz calculated that
the deficit ― the difference between how much the city spends and brings in ―
is increasing by €4 million every day.
De
Beukelaer, who attempted to reboot coalition negotiations last month, is
scathing. In all the months since the election, politicians haven’t even gotten
around to talking substance, he told POLITICO.
“It’s just
political posturing that’s blocking Brussels,” he said. “‘You’re my friend.
You’re not. I want to work with you. But not with you.’ It’s immature.”
A capital
liability
The overly
complicated political architecture confuses and frustrates even Belgians
themselves.
Put
(relatively) simply, Brussels is one of Belgium’s three regions, together with
French-speaking Wallonia in the south and Dutch-speaking Flanders in the north,
which surrounds the city. All three regions have their own governments with
responsibilities for matters like housing, transport and economic policy.
With Belgium
struggling to meet EU-mandated spending cuts, Brussels’ debt is a “liability
for the whole country,” said Dave Sinardet, professor of political sciences at
the Free University of Brussels.
Things could
get worse: The region’s credit rating could be downgraded by the summer, which
would make it more expensive to borrow, further adding to the region’s debt,
caretaker Budget Minister Sven Gatz has warned.
Sinardet
said that could at least create some pressure to finally form a government.
Others are less optimistic.
The centrist
Les Engagés party has proposed to slash the pay of Brussels politicians by 30
percent until they form a government, and by 40 percent if there isn’t one in
place by June.
French vs.
Dutch = stalemate
For now,
even the latest avenue of negotiations ― a minority government ― looks
doubtful, given that it would still need the approval of a parliamentary
majority to get to work, and for every single decision it takes thereafter.
In the first
month and a half of the year, 11 shootings claimed the lives of two people and
injured another four. |
While it
wouldn’t be the ideal setup to address Brussels’ challenges, “a minority
government would still be better equipped than no government,” De Beukelaer
said.
This is how
we ended up here: While Dutch speakers outnumber French-speaking Walloons in
the country as a whole, the reverse is true in Brussels. So, to guarantee
Dutch-speaking representation, the Brussels government must comprise a majority
from both language groups. On both sides, a set of parties must agree to work
with each other before they cut a full-blown coalition deal.
After the
June election, an agreement on the French-speaking side was relatively
straightforward. The center-right MR became Brussels’ largest French-speaking
party, and quickly cut a deal with the Socialist Party and Les Engagés.
On the other
side of the linguistic divide, the Flemish Greens won the Dutch-speaking vote,
and in November clinched an accord with the socialist Vooruit, the liberal Open
VLD and the Flemish-nationalist N-VA, the party of Belgium’s new Prime Minister
Bart De Wever.
You’ll have
guessed by now that the victory cries were short-lived. The French-speaking
socialists refused to govern with the Flemish nationalists. The liberals of
Open VLD in turn refused to govern without the Flemish nationalists.
The
French-speakers are “kidding themselves” if they think they can fix Brussels’
problems without collaborating with the Flemish nationalists who head the
federal government, said Open VLD’s chief negotiator, Frédéric De Gucht.
Ahmed
Laaouej, the Brussels president of the Socialist Party, didn’t respond to an
interview request. In an Instagram video posted last week, he called the
Flemish nationalists a “separatist, anti-Brussels and anti-diversity party,”
and said that if they were involved in a Brussels government they would show
“contempt for the Brussels region and its interests.”
No one is
budging.
Pressing the
nuclear button
While
Belgium is split into three regions, Brussels itself is divided into 19
municipalities. Each has its own mayor. They manage the region’s six police
forces.
As crime and
violence soar, Belgium’s federal government has said it wants to merge these
separate forces into a single entity. Unsurprisingly, Brussels politicians have
lambasted the decision.
They argue
that the real problem with the police is not their elaborate organization but a
lack of national funding, and that a merger risks alienating the police from
Brussels’ citizens.
As an
example of the bitter language divide, some, such as Défi’s François De Smet,
blame the new national government for imposing a Flemish-nationalist pet
project against Brussels’ will.
Flemish
parties say it just makes sense. As with a decision to send all police calls
through a joint dispatching system, “you don’t have to be a Flemish nationalist
to know that’s a better system,” Open VLD’s De Gucht said.
In the
stalemate, some fear Brussels’ self-determination is slipping away.
The
president of the MR party, Georges-Louis Bouchez, has indeed raised the threat
that Brussels, if it doesn’t get its act together, could be placed under
federal government control.
That would
be akin to pressing the nuclear button. It’s also likely impossible.
Legally
speaking, the idea is “fiction,” according to Sinardet. But in theory, the
federal government could make additional payments to Brussels conditional on
certain measures, similar to how the EU made Greece reform in return for a
bailout, he said.
As recently
as the early hours of Friday morning, another shooting occurred in the
south-west of the city.
Sooner or
later, Brussels’ chaos will force someone to act. But seemingly not yet.
“I’m
embarrassed by the political circus,” De Beukelaer said.
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