Whensday: When Belgium went without a government

Do we need government? For plenty of people this is a real question. When people have to deal with red tape or bureaucracy, the real frustration can cause us all to wonder if government is good for anything. 

Politics in Belgium is quite complicated. There are 3 different levels (federal, provincial, city) but there are then also three different areas: Flanders, Wallonia, and Brussels. All of these levels make for more than enough bureaucrats and an amazing amount of red tape to swim in. There are elections at various times for the various levels of government, and each level vies for the most attention and money and power. 

In 2010 federal elections had to come up with a new federal government. Belgium is a multi-party system and there is never a clear majority. This means that parties have to work together. And that is in each level of government. The immediate results didn’t give a clear combination of parties. Neither the left side of the spectrum nor the right had enough seats, even when working with others within their side of the spectrum. 

This stalemate of sorts was not strange. It had happened before in Belgium and The Netherlands as well. In The Netherlands, they had had a “purple” government. The left is typically red, the economically liberal right is considered blue -  together they were purple. So waiting for the parties to figure out how they would work together was not a strange thing. 

But it did become a sort of a competition, with the world as spectators. It took more than 500 days (589) before a government was finally formed and installed. So what had the country been doing in the almost two years of no government? Just about everything as usual. The previous government’s decisions were continued, no new decisions could be made and all of the bureaucrats would be staying anyway. 

It was an interesting lesson. I remember some Dutch friends worried that Belgium would descend into civil war. But I knew that most Belgians simply want a good coffee or beer, enough French fries (they are not French, but Belgian) and some peace and quiet. This was exactly what people were able to enjoy during that time. 

In 2018 Belgium started on the path to breaking its own record, this time lasting 653 days without a government and ending up with a “Vivaldi” coalition in October 2020. Vivaldi is the composer of the Four Seasons because there were now 4 groups in the coalition (Greens, Socialists, Liberals and Christian Democrats). Maybe the next elections will last even longer.