One year without government. The eight ministers and secretaries of state resigning from the Brussels regional executive are still stationed, retaining salaries, firms and cars from the regional elections of June 9, 2024 … A political paralysis whose deep causes are rarely named in the traditional media, according to Alain Destexhe.
The doctor and former Belgian senator attributes it to “An unparalleled demographic upheaval in Western Europe”. In a platform published in Le Figarohe details the springs of this institutional blockage, nourished according to him by clientelism, the rise of political Islam and the community bursting of the Belgian capital.
In Brussels, the reform movement (MR, center-right), who came at the top of the 2024 elections, failed to train a majority. In question? A proportional system which gives the majority to the left within the regional parliament, with 89 deputies for 1.2 million inhabitants. After a year of unsuccessful negotiations, it was the Socialist Party (PS) which has regained hand.
But the left cannot govern alone: to form a majority, it now depends on the support of the PTB (Labor Party of Belgium, Communist), environmentalists, severely sanctioned in the ballot boxes, and Team Fouad Ahidar, a new Islamist party who “Separ (e) men and women by a curtain during his campaign meetings”.
“A communitarian party”
Since the 2000s, the Brussels PS has been transformed, according to Destexhe, into “Communitarian party, mainly representing Moroccan and Turkish populations”. This strategic repositioning would have enabled him to maintain power for two decades. But today, he faces a double competition: that of the PTB on his left, and that of an Islamist movement in full structuring, which he would have helped to legitimize.
Under pressure from his Muslim electorate, “The PS has given up on almost everything” : Authorization for wearing the veil in the administration, halal meal in school canteens, recognition of ritual slaughter, or trivialization “Uninhibited anti -Semitism”. And although the regional parliament has no competence in international matters, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is there “Omnipresent”writes Destexhe.
“61 % of residents in Brussels
are of extra-European origin “
Political blocking is also explained by the Brussels institutional system, which Alain Destexhe describes as “Kafkaïen”. All majority must be double: French -speaking and Dutch -speaking. However, the Flemish parties categorically refuse any alliance with the Communists or the Islamists.
Result: no viable coalition is emerging. Meanwhile, the institutions run empty. “The resigning ministers remain in office (…) The 89 deputies of the regional parliament are unemployed – except to vote for resolutions against Israel”quips the author.
A capital with demographic drift
For Alain Destexhe, the heart of the problem is demographic. In Brussels, “Only 23 % of residents are still of Belgian origin, and 61 % are of extra-European origin. »» In public schools, the Muslim religion course is now “By far the most chosen”.
This rapid transformation would prevent any form of political unity. “The population is too fragmented into religious and national communities to form a political body”, he assures. And to conclude: ” Brussels turns into a kind of Islamized Venezuela! »»
