Belgium breaks world record for country with no government

The Belgian political agenda is dominated by ethnic–communitarian tensions and, in a world record, no new government has been formed since the June 2010 general election. In general, parties from Flanders are strongly in favour of devolving power to the regions and splitting the Brussels–Halle–Vilvoorde (BHV) district while the Walloons support the status quo. Social partners are increasingly concerned about the stalemate but have differing views on state reform.

On 18 February 2011, 250 days had passed since the general election in Belgium. Yet the country still had no cabinet, taking the world record for a country with no government from the previous holder, Iraq, which went 249 days without forming a government after its general election in March 2010. It appears that Belgium will stretch the record well beyond that as discussions over forming a new government remain at an impasse.

A pending ethnic conflict

Consecutive revisions of the Belgian constitution have established a federal state structure with three dimensions:

• a federal government;
• three language communities (Flemish, French and German);
• three regions (Flanders, Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region).

Nevertheless, ethnic–communitarian issues have dominated the political agenda since the previous elections in 2007. An important factor in the debate is the capital Brussels, which is predominantly a French-speaking city but has a Flemish periphery.

The last government collapsed in April 2010 over a dispute about voting rules in an electoral district that surrounds Brussels. Brussels–Halle–Vilvoorde (BHV) is officially in Flanders, Belgium’s Dutch-speaking north. But a large number of French-speaking people live in the district and they are allowed to vote for Francophone politicians in elections.

The New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) a nationalist conservative party, secured a sweeping victory in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium in the national elections held on 13 June 2010. Flemish nationalist gains were matched by a large victory for the socialists in French-speaking Wallonia, with both parties expected to lead government coalition talks.

The ongoing debate on whether the state needs reform was re-invigorated by the outcome of the elections. For the first time in history, a Flemish-nationalist party whose end goal is an independent Flanders became the biggest party in Flanders with 28% of the votes. As Flanders is the largest region in population, NVA obtained the largest share of seats in the federal parliament.

The parties have not yet negotiated the formation of a government cabinet. Instead talks have focused on constitutional state reform. In this long post-election period, King Albert II has appointed several leading politicians to various posts in an attempt to create a coalition agreement. Three issues dominate the discussion:

1. The BHV-issue: how should this election district be split?
2. Which additional powers should be allocated to the regions and/or communities?

• Organisation of the health sector?
• Justice policies?
• Labour market policies (including unemployment benefit schemes)?

1. A revision of the financial model underpinning the federal structure of the country:

• How much money be split between each level of government?
• How would possible transfers of money between regions (currently from the wealthier Flanders to the Walloon region or Brussels) be organised in this model?
• Would this new model grant more fiscal autonomy to the regions and how?

Social partners and state reform

Only a few of the major social partner organisations, all belonging to the Flemish employers’ side, are arguing explicitly for radical state reform. In an article (in Dutch, 191Kb PDF), Sociale partners op de tweesprong van IPA en staatshervorming [Social partners at the crossroad of intersectoral agreement and state reform] for the policy journal, Samenleving en politiek in 2010, Nicolas Bouteca, Carl Devos and Manu Mus collected the opinions of the major organisations on the social–economic issues of state reform. Tables 1 and 2 summarise the results of their poll of employers’ confederation and trade union confederations respectively. In general the authors conclude that most of the social partners are not in favour of radical state reform in the area of employment and social matters. The unions are more reluctant than the employers’ side and it is particularly the two Flemish employers’ confederations, VOKA and Unizo, which are strongly in favour of significant state reform.

Notes: Scale: 1 = strongly agree (regionalisation) to 5 = strongly disagree (re-federalisation) with 3 = status quo. n/a = not applicable.

Employers’ organisations polled: Federation of Belgian Employers (FEB/VBO), Flemish Economic Association (VOKA), Union of Independent Entrepreneurs (Unizo; the largest organisation for the self-employed and small and medium enterprises in Flanders) and Union des classes moyennes (UCM, the counterpart of UNIZO in Wallonia).

Source: Samenleving en politiek, No. 9, 2010, 4–15.

Notes: Scale: 1 = strongly agree (regionalisation) to 5 = strongly disagree (re-federalisation) with 3 = status quo.

n/a = not applicable.

Trade unions polled: Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (ACV/CSC), Belgian General Federation of Labour (ABVV/FGTB) and Central Federation of Liberal Trade Unions of Belgium (ACLVB/CGSLB)

Source: Samenleving en politiek, No. 9, 2010, 4–15.

Labour market issues

There is a low level of support for regionalisation of the negotiation of wage agreements. Even VOKA seeks more decentralisation to company-level wage bargaining rather than the introduction of a regional level of wage bargaining.

The unions are strongly against the regionalisation of unemployment benefits and the related sanctions. The Flemish employers’ side is demanding the organisation of activation of unemployment benefit and sanctions at the same level. They also hope that regionalisation of the unemployment benefit agency will stimulate discussion in Flanders about limiting the duration of unemployment benefit payment, which is currently indefinite under certain conditions. In their opinion, this issue can not be discussed at the federal level because it is blocked by the Walloon side. VBO and UCM are more in favour of continuing the current collaboration between the federal unemployment benefit agency (RVA/ONEM) and the regional employment agencies – the Flemish Public Employment Service (VDAB), the Regional Vocational Training and Employment Office (FOREM) and the Brussels Region Employment Office (Actiris).

In the policy debate on active labour market policies, the different structure of the unemployment group in the regions is often a critical issue. Most of the social partners go along with further regionalisation of these labour market policies. However, there are differing opinions on how regionalisation should be implemented. VBO and UCM want to keep the general social tax benefits related to employment goals federal; they believe that labour costs have to be the same in all regions. ABVV-FGTB also highlights this issue, stating that activation of unemployment benefits has to be the key strategy.

Social security

Social security is considered the backbone of national solidarity and most organisations are opposed to further regionalisation of social security matters. Major differences in social security provisions and the possibility of different social taxes on wages are not considered productive or healthy for the economic performance and social cohesion of Belgium.

Civil servants’ pensions

However, the employers’ side is in favour of a change in the financing of civil servants’ pensions. The pension system of regional civil servants is still organised at the federal level. The trade unions want to keep the federal system but believe that the regions should finance their civil servants.

Health insurance and other social security benefits

The Flemish government is already experimenting with additional social security benefits: an extra child benefit, an additional health insurance for people with high care demands and possibly specific hospital insurance. The union side is usually in favour of these new types of social security schemes but want to see them developed at the federal level. The Flemish employers’ organisations are not opposed to these new social security schemes as long as they do not result in higher social taxes. The other employers’ organisations are not in favour of a regionalised ‘two-tier’ social security. Further regionalisation of mandatory health insurance does not receive much support from the respondents to the opinion poll.

Perspective of socio-economic governance

Belgium is not totally without government. Important powers such as education, active labour market policies and industrial policy are already being executed by the regions and the communities. At these sub-federal levels, governments are still functioning. However, no fundamental reforms can be set up or debated such as the much-awaited pension reform.

Since the beginning of 2011, the interim government of Prime Minister Ives Leterme has increasingly taken up ‘necessary and unavoidable’ issues of current affairs. The most important has been proposing the state budget for 2011 and composing the national reform plan as requested by the EU authorities within the framework of the Stability and Growth Pact.

Social partners and the political stalemate

Belgium has one of the largest public debts in the EU and the social partners have raised concerns that the political crisis is interfering with the country’s capacity to tackle its economic problems. However, most of the leaders of trade unions and employers’ organisations keep stressing that solving the political crisis is a task for the politicians.

Some of the key social partners have strong opinions about the (electorally successful) Flemish nationalist party NVA. NVA and the Flemish employers’ organisation VOKA are close ideologically. However, the Flemish section of the socialist trade union ABVV has started a campaign (in Dutch) to ‘counteract the separatist and employer-friendly agenda of the party’.

Meanwhile, parts of civil society have begun to rally against the deadlock over forming a government with demonstrations and other more ‘playful’ actions such as the ‘Shame’ march, Grow a beard for Belgium and Sex Ban). Labour movements have played no direct role in mobilising participants for these actions but have been supportive.

Guy Van Gyes, Higher Institute for Labour Studies (HIVA), Catholic University of Leuven (KUL)