Hundreds of Brussels residents took to the streets Monday to protest as the failure of squabbling politicians to form a regional city government topped a previous 541-day Belgian record.
Going that long is quite a feat even in a country where painful political negotiations are almost as much a part of the national culture as beer, chocolate and chips.
Split between its rival language camps, Belgium’s complex political patchwork has long been seen as borderline dysfunctional.
In 2010-2011 it took an unprecedented 541 days to form a federal government.
But the deadlock in the Brussels region — which covers some 1.2 million inhabitants and is home to the chief European Union institutions — shows no signs of coming to an end as talks have stalled between rival parties.
“541 days after local elections the situation is completely blocked,” fumed Nicolas Hemelers, from citizen group “Respect Brussels”.
“Environment, mobility, access to housing: a number of policies are on standby and the region is no longer taking charge of major issues.”
In Brussels, the regional parliament currently has 89 elected members from 14 parties, and forging a coalition is even more complex because you need majorities among both French-speaking and Dutch-speaking groups.
mad-del/ec/sbk
