Why Belgium Cannot Form a Government and Keeps Going Anyway
September 19, 2025 · Frisian News
Belgium has spent months without a functioning government as political parties deadlock over language, budgets, and ideology. The country simply limps forward with a caretaker cabinet, proving that sometimes gridlock works fine.
Belgium's parliament sits in Brussels, hemmed in by three language groups that cannot agree on much of anything. Flemish speakers in the north want more power and lower taxes. Walloon speakers in the south fear losing welfare funds. Brussels itself, officially bilingual but de facto French-speaking, plays kingmaker in a game nobody really wins. After elections in June, parties spent three months talking, then three more months not talking at all. No coalition formed. No government took office. The king kept asking, the politicians kept saying no, and nobody seemed especially upset about it.
The official reason for the impasse sounds technical but cuts deep. Flanders wants to cut spending and decentralize power away from federal Brussels. Wallonia wants the opposite, wanting Brussels to keep controlling money and sending it south. Throw in squabbles over language laws, immigration, energy policy, and whether to raise or lower pensions, and you have a recipe for paralysis. Several far-right and left-wing parties refuse to work with the traditional center parties. The traditional center parties refuse to work with the far-right and far-left. Everyone knows what everyone else wants and knows they cannot have it. So they sit and wait.
What makes this situation odd is that nothing terrible happens. Bills still pass. Budgets get approved at the old rates. Ministers keep their desks and keep working. Belgium runs on a caretaker government staffed by the previous administration's people, and it works adequately. The trains run. Schools open. Hospitals function. A country that cannot form a government proves remarkably durable, at least in the short term. Caretaker cabinets exist precisely for this reason, a brake on the chaos that prevents democracies from seizing up entirely when politicians play chicken.
Belgium's real crisis is structural, not immediate. A caretaker cabinet cannot make new laws, launch new programs, or commit to long-term spending. It treads water. For a few months that feels fine. For a year, it becomes a problem. For two years, it becomes a warning sign that the whole system works only because its parts hate change more than they hate each other. Flanders grows richer and wants out. Wallonia falls behind and wants to stay in. Brussels wants to matter and grows more French every year. Each region trusts the others less than it trusts itself, and the federal level exists only because nobody has figured out how to cut it apart without bleeding.
Some European observers fret that Belgium's dysfunction might spread or set a bad example. More likely, Belgium simply shows what happens when you build a country on compromises that nobody actually believes in anymore. The system holds because inertia is powerful, not because it has legitimacy. The caretaker government will probably limp along until late autumn or early winter, when someone finally cracks and agrees to a coalition that makes nobody happy but lets the government claim it exists. Until then, Belgium proves that a state can govern without governing, a useful lesson for anyone who thinks democracy must be tidy to be real.
It Belgiske parliament sit yn Brussel, omjûn troch trije taalgroepen dy't it oer hast neat iens wurde kinne. Flaamske sprekkers yn it noarden wolle mear macht en legere belestingen. Wallonske sprekkers yn it suden fearje dat wolfartsposten weifolle. Brussel sels, offisjeel tweetalich mar de fakto Frânsktalich, spielet kingmaker yn in spel dat niemme echt winne kin. Neidat de keazen yn juny, brochten partijen trije moannten prate troch, folge troch noch trije moannich wêr't se hielendal net mear spreken. Gjin koalysje form sich. Gjin regering naam ambt oan. De kening bleau freegje, politici bleau nee sizze, en nimmen leek der hiel boos om.
De offisjele reden foar de deadlock klinkt technisch mar reitsje djip. Flânskland wil útgaven kapje en macht desentralisearje fuort fan federaal Brussel. Wallonïe wil it tsjoasterstelde, mei Brussel dat jild bliuwt kontrolearje en nei it suden stjoert. Foegje dearnei twisten oer taalwetten, immigraasje, enerzjybelied en pensjoenen by, en jo hawwe in rezept foar lamme. Ferskate ekstrimrjochtse en loftseparte wigerje mei tradisjonele sintrum-partijen te wurkjen. De tradisjonele sintrum-partijen wigerje mei ekstrimrjochts en loftsekstrim saam te wurkjen. Eltsenien wit wat eltsenien ander wol en wit dat se it net krije kinne. Dus se sitte en wachtsje.
Wat dizze situaasje frjemd makket is dat neat fersikelik bart. Wetsfoarstellen passe noch steed. Begrotingen krije goedkeuring tsjin alde tariven. Ministers holle har burau en wurkje gewoanwei troch. Belgje draait op in demissionêr kabinet byman troch minsken út de foarige regering, en it wurket prima. Treinen rijde. Skoallen gean iepen. Siekhûzen funksjonearje. In lân dat gjin regering foarmje kin, lit fernuvere duermjitichheid sjen, op syn minst op koarte termyn. Demissionêr kabinetten bestoan krekt dêrfoar, in rem op de chaos dy't demokratyen foarkomt folslein fêst te lopen as politiki spylje.
Belgje's werklike krisis is struktureel, net direkt. In demissionêr kabinet kin gjin nije wetten meitsje, gjin nije programma's lansearje, gjin lange termyn útjouwing fêsthâlde. It treadt wetter. Foar in pear moannich fielt dat prima. Foar in jier wurdt it in probleem. Foar twa jier wurdt it in werskeauwingsteken dat it heule systeem allinne wurket omdat syn dielen ferdigering hate mear as se inoar hate. Flânskland wurdt riker en wol fuort. Wallonïe falt yn en wol bliuwe. Brussel wol der om te dwaan en wurdt elk jier Frânsker. Elke regio fertrouet de oaren minder as himsels, en it federale nivo besteane allinne omdat nimmen wit hoe't it út inoar te snijen sûnder bloedferlis.
Sumige Europeeske waarnimmers meitsje har soargen dat Belgiske disfunksje him fersprieade soe of slech foarbyld jaan. Wierskynliker toant Belgje gewoanwei wat bart as jo in lân op kompromissen bouwe wêryn nimmen mear geleauwe. It systeem holt stean omdat trainichheid sterk is, net omdat it rechtmitichheid hat. De demissionêr regering sil wierskynliker oant lette hjerst of ier winter trochs lean, oant immen einlings bôget en in koalysje akseptearret dy't nimmen bliid makket mar it regering lit sizze dat it besteane docht. Oant dat tiid bepraat Belgje dat in steat kin regearje sûnder te regearje, in nuttich les foar wa't tinkt dat demokraty netjes wêze moat om echt te wêzen.
Published September 19, 2025 · Frisian News · Ljouwert, Fryslân