Brussels, ma belle | The time
Bruxelles je t’aime, Bruxelles je t’aime. Tu m’avais manque. Bruxelles je t’aime, Bruxelles je t’aime. It’s ma preferee. Bruxelles je t’aime, Bruxelles je t’aime. Tu m’avais manque. T’es la plus belle, oui, t’es la plus belle..
Brussels may be the capital of Flanders, but outside the Brussels Flemings – or should I say: Flemish Brussels inhabitants – few Flemings are even lyrical about their capital as Angèle in her Brussels love song.
In the eyes of many Flemish people, Brussels is rather a ‘hellhole’, as former US President Donald Trump put it. A big city that has all the disadvantages of a big city. An image that is difficult to reverse, even though the mayor of Brussels Philippe Close (PS) does make some effort to introduce the Flemish to their capital. That was, for example, the reason why Close gave a lot to let the tour caravan pass through Brussels.
But despite all the promotion efforts, the news is mainly negative. As recently, when the Court of Audit delivered a destroyed report on Brussels financial management, or rather: financial mismanagement. The Court of Audit does not even want to pass judgment on those Brussels accounts anymore, because they are such a mess.
The underlying demand is from Flanders Brussels will be issued. Few Flemish people will have a problem with that, because a lot of love has not been wasted on it.
For the Brussels resident who would prefer to stand on his own two feet, and who does not want to choose between a Flemish or a French-speaking subnationality, it should be alarming to make such a mess. Because soon the people of Brussels threaten to be the ‘servants people who stammer and beg at the gate’, as the late GvA journalist Roger Van Houtte said about the Antwerp residents, when they were still weighed down by the towering historical debt.
financial slope
While the historical debt in Antwerp has finally been cleared, the Brussels Region is seeing the debt mountain grow dizzyingly fast. Brussels debts increased by 90 percent between 2016 and 2020 to 8.9 billion euros at the end of 2020. “, the Court of Audit painted the bleak picture of a Brussels region heading for a financial disaster.
What do you think, Alain, will Brussels be at the gates of another refinancing in 2024? If the Brussels politician makes such a financial mess, I’m afraid it will be difficult to appeal to that Flemish solidarity. There will be a price to pay, don’t you think Alain? Flanders will not want to write a blank check, but will use the refinancing of Brussels as a small coin for more Flemish autonomy.
Will Brussels be at the gates of another refinancing in 2024?
The underlying demand is from Flanders Brussels will be issued. Few Flemish people will have a problem with that, because a lot of love has not been wasted on it. It would also fit in with the political consensus that is increasingly taking shape to transform Belgium into a federation of four federated states: Flanders, Wallonia, Brussels and the German speakers.
The French-speaking dream of making Brussels an equal region to Flanders and Wallonia will then come true, but Flanders will immediately be able to go its own way. Brussels will then no longer be the head of the Siamese twins that are Belgium, which Karel De Gucht did secret that Flanders and Wallonia were inseparable.