Months-long attempts to form a Brussels regional government hit a deadlock Friday, as lead negotiator David Leisterh handed in his resignation.
“After more than eight months, it’s clear that despite all the strength and patience I have been able to put into it, … the positions of the different parties do not allow the formation of a majority,” Leisterh, who heads the French-speaking liberal Reformist Movement in Brussels, said in a statement Friday evening.
Leisterh had given himself until the end of the week to force a breakthrough in the talks, but he said several partners had “prevented any reasonable exploration of a solution.”
The French-speaking Socialist Party — whose refusal to govern with the Flemish-nationalist New Flemish Alliance of Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever stopped the coalition talks dead in their tracks — “must now take its responsibility,” Leisterh said.
Brussels “deserves policies that go beyond the tactical games of low politics,” he added.
The stalemate comes at a time when the capital region can little afford it. The city has been plagued by drug-related violence, with multiple shootings this month. On top of that, the region’s budget is deeply in the red, with a debt of €14 billion and a projected €1.6 billion deficit this year alone.
Brussels is now in urgent need of a new government that can carry out reforms. Otherwise, it risks a downgrade in its credit rating, which would make it more expensive to borrow money, outgoing Brussels Capital Region Finance Minister Sven Gatz warned earlier this week.
“The difference between the Brussels government and the Titanic, is that the Titanic did not see the iceberg, or saw it much too late. Brussels’ caretaker government is sailing straight for the iceberg,” Gatz said.
The formation of the Brussels regional government is typically wrapped up within weeks — not this time however. Belgium held national, regional and EU elections in June, and following the (long-in-coming) formation of a Belgian federal government last month, the capital region is now the only remaining region without a governing coalition.
Talks have repeatedly hit roadblocks over the course of the past eight months.
The regional government is supposed to be composed of a French-speaking majority as well as a majority among Dutch-speaking parties, which are far smaller in Brussels.
The liberal Reformist Party, Socialist Party and centrist Les Engagés quickly cemented a deal on the French-speaking side. But on the Dutch-speaking side, the highly fragmented election result led to months-long negotiations, led by the Greens. The difficult talks were further exacerbated by several parties’ vetoes against a deal with the second-largest Dutch-speaking party, the brand new list of Team Fouad Ahidar.
When Brussels’ Dutch-speaking parties finally cut a deal with the Greens, the socialist Vooruit party, the liberals of Open VLD and the Flemish-nationalist New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), the French-speaking parties’ majority crumbled. The leader of the French-speaking socialists, Ahmed Laaouej, refuses to govern with the N-VA and has held on to that veto.
That has led to an unexpected political stalemate in Belgium — where everyone had anticipated a deadlock on the national level, but not in Brussels.
“Unexpectedly, all the problems that had been expected in the remainder of the country have been concentrated in Brussels,” said Dave Sinardet, professor of political science at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He pointed to a major gulf between Dutch-speaking and French-speaking election winners.
Brussels-based industry has warned the political stalemate has devastating consequences.
“Brussels is slowly but surely sliding toward the abyss,” Flanders’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry warned in an open letter this week. The call was signed by some 50 Brussels-based companies, including Engie, Nestlé Belgium and Coca Cola.
The companies raised the alarm about the safety of clients, suppliers and employees in the Belgian capital, following weeks marked by drug-related violence, but they also complained about the “alarming” budgetary situation.
On Friday, a group of employer and employee organizations added a warning of their own. In a joint letter, they called on politicians to “take their responsibility,” demanding that they “stop behaving like politicians, and start behaving like statesmen and -women who are up to the challenge.”
They warned: “Every day without a government makes a situation that’s already worrying, worse.”
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