Brussels — Parties in the Brussels-Capital Region say they have reached a coalition agreement to form a new regional government, ending a political impasse that has lasted more than 600 days since the June 2024 elections.
The agreement brings together seven parties across both language groups and is expected to lead to a swearing-in at the weekend, though the choice of minister-president had not been confirmed on Thursday evening.
According to Belga, the coalition is made up of the liberal MR, the Socialist Party (PS) and the centrist Les Engagés on the French-speaking side, alongside Groen, Anders, Vooruit and CD&V on the Dutch-speaking side. The arrangement secures majorities in both language groups, a central requirement in the Brussels institutional system.
The deal follows a three-day closed-door “conclave” at the University Foundation (Universitaire Stichting), where negotiators had been meeting since Tuesday morning. MR leader Georges-Louis Bouchez had framed the talks around an agreement on a budgetary path returning the region to balance by 2029, a target repeatedly cited by parties involved as a condition for concluding negotiations.
While Flemish media have described the deadlock as lasting 614 days, Belga put the figure at 613 days after the elections, reflecting minor differences in counting. Either way, Brussels has operated for roughly 20 months without a newly mandated regional executive, amid mounting concern over the region’s finances and administrative capacity.
Several party leaders presented the agreement as combining fiscal consolidation with administrative reform. Anders chairman Frédéric De Gucht said the region would become “more efficient, simpler and financially sound”, pointing to mergers and rationalisation across administrations and institutions. Les Engagés leader Yvan Verougstraete, whose earlier attempt to broker a deal had failed, welcomed Bouchez’s success and described the new agreement as a way to “take the region back in hand”, arguing that credibility would depend on concrete measures rather than a single headline figure for 2029.
A central issue during the talks was transport policy, particularly the regional mobility plan known as Good Move. Groen leader and outgoing mobility minister Elke Van den Brandt said Good Move would remain in place until 2029, with an evaluation intended to shape a successor plan from 2030. Good Move, adopted by the region’s previous government, has sought to reduce through-traffic and reallocate street space in parts of the capital, prompting disputes between municipalities, motorists’ groups and proponents of active travel.
Van den Brandt also said the low-emission zone would remain, including planned tightening of standards. Brussels’ low-emission rules have been subject to legal and political contestation in recent years, but remain a cornerstone of the region’s air-quality and transport policy.
The coalition agreement also lands in a tense national context. Belgium’s federal government, led by Prime Minister Bart De Wever, does not include the PS, and De Wever’s own party, the Flemish nationalist N-VA, has been left out of the Brussels arrangement despite being a key player at federal level. De Wever said he would judge the Brussels deal primarily on whether it delivers credible restructuring, noting the size of the regional deficit and expressing scepticism rooted in the long history of failed formation attempts.
The exclusion of N-VA has also drawn criticism from within Flemish politics, with opponents portraying the Brussels line-up as resembling earlier multi-party coalitions at federal level. Supporters of the deal argue that it reflects the arithmetic required to assemble a double majority in Brussels, while critics contend that the process prioritised speed over policy clarity.
Another test will be internal party ratification. Party conferences were scheduled for Thursday evening, with members expected to vote on whether to endorse the draft agreement. Bouchez convened MR members to seek approval for entering government, while other parties prepared their own internal procedures, including member consultations.
The new regional executive will also inherit major public-order and infrastructure dossiers, including drug-related violence around transport hubs and disputes over large-scale transport projects. Coalition partners have indicated intentions to tighten governance and focus spending on what they describe as core public tasks, though the detail of portfolios and ministerial assignments was still being finalised late on Thursday.
For Brussels, the immediate question is whether the coalition can translate a rapid endgame in negotiations into stable governing capacity. The medium-term test is the fiscal path: a commitment to a balanced budget by 2029 implies either higher revenues, lower spending, structural reforms, or a combination of all three, at a time when Brussels faces persistent security concerns, infrastructure pressures and rising demands on public services.
