"The city has now surpassed the record of the country as a whole, which made headlines around the world in 2010-11 when it took 541 days to form a government, the longest period to form an administration in peacetime. Brussels, however, like Northern Ireland, which went 729 days without a government, will escape the ignominy of entering the Guinness World Records, which counts only sovereign states."
"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."
Brussels has gone 542 days without a regional government following elections in June 2024, surpassing the previous Belgian national record. Fourteen parties in the 89-seat parliament remain mired in rancorous divisions and personal insults, producing prolonged deadlock. The lack of governance exacerbates a mounting budget crisis while authorities face rising drug-related violence, homelessness and challenges managing irregular migrants. The city hosts major EU and Nato institutions, intensifying concern about institutional paralysis. Nearly 200 business, academic and cultural figures signed an open letter warning that political inaction is harming daily life and that urgent economic, social, climatic and institutional problems cannot wait.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]