This weekend, communal elections are on the agenda in Belgium. This is really just a starter for the federal and regional elections in may of next year. Although this is still more than six months from now, it feels as if our country is already at a halt due to these upcoming elections.

Problem one, 5 governments!

I kid you not, we have 5 governments in Belgium. I will try to make it easier for people by simplifying things a little bit, so we all understand.

-There is Federal government that has (some) jurisdiction is the whole country.
-Then we have the Flemish, regional government, that has most jurisdiction over Flanders
-There is the Walloon regional government, with jurisdiction over Wallonia.
-Furthermore, we have the regional government for the "Brussels-Capital-Region", again with most jurisdiction of its own region.
-Last, we have the government for the "German speaking community", with jurisdiction over a very small part of Belgium, where the official language is German.

Small country, divided...

Ok, that is quite a bunch of ministers and cabinets, don't you think. I will give you an example what is the big problem about this. Every region has a minister for economy and work. But so does the federal government.
Now when there is an issue that needs to be handled, one should think these would co-operate and work together for the sake of the country. Now that is not the case. Because the coalition in all those governments are formed differently from each other, because of different elections, some of those ministers come from different parties. This means that most of the time, party politics make a decision even harder.
Sometimes there is even discussion about which minister has jurisdiction about what... Or even nobody has jurisdiction about some issues. I kid you not!

2. Parliament and Senate in the Federal government

Yep, although we have 5 governments, there still are 2 different stages of law making powers in the Federal Government. Actually the real power is with the parliament, but still the senate can block some issues. What for, these senators are paid? Nobody knows, but they're still there.

3. Provincial "government"

Yep, not only is our country divided in regions, those regions have provinces and they all have a "government". Although they have officially a ceremonial function, still they can block any dossier that is filed by the communal board. For instance for the application for building a house.
This place is home to the politicians that are "burnt" or the ones that just want to save their pension plans.

4. Communal boards

Last but not least every village or city has a communal board, with a mayor, and board members. The number of members depends on the number of inhabitants of the village. These people decide about what happens in the village and have an extra tax on the villagers. Except of course an other government says they can't, which of course happens a lot.

Loads of parties, little decisions...

Biggest problem about all this?

Actually quite easy to say. We have 5 kinds of elections in Belgium. Communal and provincial, held together. And Federal, regional and European elections also held at the same moment.
Problem? Well, different parties for every election get elected, so different coalitions, and different governments working against each other...

Therefor, Belgium a paralyzed country...

If you read all through this, please have a drink!
Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

Pele23