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.
That first para might explain that second.
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.
Oh Dear. How Sad, Never Mind.
Of course, this is the system varied lefties would like here. To, you know, beat Farage with the thwack of firm governance.
I know the Dutch don’t have it and I guess the Belgies might not, by the sounds of things. But the 5% hurdle does come in very handy sometimes.
No government for over 500 days, sounds like a great system.
BiS, I reckon it won’t have made much difference to the average Bruxellois / Brusselaar as the morons who infest local government everywhere will still be doing what they do best and screwing things up.
This used to be precisely my take, until I worked out that ‘no government’ doesn’t mean no government, it means an even less accountable bunch of unelected and unknown civil servants perform the functions of the government to an even greater degree than they previously did.