Belgium's 2024 local elections are around the corner. Brussels residents will vote to elect their local council on Sunday 13 October, and indirectly, their new mayor (bourgmestre in French or burgemeester in Dutch).
Knowing how the local election list system works is key to understanding who is running. Find all you need to know about lists here. Our practical guide will tell you everything you need to know before the big day.
Some numbers below are missing. This is because there are a total of 13 lists in Brussels, but not every list appears in every commune.
Current mayor: Vincent De Wolf (MR)
Current coalition: Liste Bourgmestre-Ecolo-PS
Number of seats on the council: 35
Population: 49,775, half of whom don't have Belgian nationality (Statbel)
Average income: €16,550 (Statbel)
Average cost of housing: The average price for a flat is €3,899/m2, while the average cost for a house is €3,706/m2 (Immoweb)
1. PS - Vooruit
Lead candidate: Rachid Madrane (PS)
Number of candidates on the list: 35
Cleanliness: offer educational workshops to inform locals about cleanliness, install underground waste bins.
Mobility: ensure better traffic safety around schools, more bicycle paths, negotiate with stores to make their parking spaces available to the public outside opening hours, make public space accessible to people with reduced mobility.
Housing: energy-efficient and affordable heating for everyone, increase the percentage of social housing to at least 10%, compensate long waiting times for social housing with rent subsidy, reintegrate homeless people through the 'Housing First' principle, transform empty buildings into housing.
Full list programme here.
2. DéFI
Lead candidate: Gisèle Mandaila Malamba
Number of candidates on the list: 35
Cleanliness: transfer all powers for cleaning and maintenance of roads to municipalities, penalise litterers (with fines or community service), use the FixMyStreet app to report cleanliness issues, set up local response team to remove illegal waste.
Mobility: limit through traffic, guarantee parking spaces for all types of vehicles, renovate existing pedestrian infrastructures, lower the speed limit of bicycles and e-scooters in pedestrian areas, more separate cycling paths.
Security: identify the causes of insecurity and crime to combat them preventively, increase the presence of neighbourhood peacekeepers, create a network of cameras starting with districts most affected by crime, punish street harassment.
Housing: more resources devoted to social housing policy in favour of rent allowances and incentives for home ownership, punish owners of empty buildings, combat discrimination in access to housing, prioritise housing access for single parents.
Full list programme here.
3. Liste du Bourgmestre (MR, CD&V, Open VLD, independents)
Lead candidate: Vincent De Wolf (MR)
Number of candidates on the list: 35
Cleanliness and public space: develop Jardins de la Chasse and former town hall, raise residents' awareness of the need for respectful behaviour, promote better waste-sorting and environmental practices in schools, combat misplacement of e-scooters and work to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.
Mobility: support electric and shared transport, encourage walking and cycling through educative initiatives, increase the number of cycle streets, guarantee road safety for children around schools with pedestrian crossings and school streets.
Housing: double the number of homes entrusted to the Agence immobilière sociale (AIS) by granting a rent subsidy to owners, promote access to home-ownership for young people by creating around 100 new affordable homes.
Security: peacekeepers in the vicinity of schools to monitor pedestrian crossings and ensure children's safety, school workshops against (cyber)bullying, tackle drug use in public spaces, strengthen community policing.
No full list published. More information here.
4. Ecolo-Groen
Lead candidate: Caroline Joway
Number of candidates on the list: 35
Cleanliness: tackle illegal dumping, dog faeces on pavements, urine and graffiti with harsher sanctions, recruit street sweepers, continue the system of premiums to reduce waste, start a pilot project with waste containers per district.
Mobility: adjust residents' card cost to the size and weight of the car, increase the number of permanent school streets, limit through traffic, more marked and separated cycle lanes, develop the activities in the Mahma (house for active mobility), prevent illegal parking within five metres of a pedestrian crossing.
Housing: turn empty buildings into housing, abolish the tax for occupying roads during renovation/insulation works, speed up energy transition with targeted and substantial support, renovate uninhabitable social housing, more shared housing for young people, strengthen social coordination in the fight against homelessness.
Full list programme here.
8. Les Engagés
Lead candidate: André du Bus
Number of candidates on the list: 35
Cleanliness: promote zero-waste shopping, install surveillance systems to combat illegal dumping, make cleanliness a priority in permits for open-air events, create graffiti walls to avoid vandalism.
Mobility: enable non-resident home-owners to obtain visitor parking permits, distribute more EV charging points, organise road safety training for young people, develop and improve the safety of cycle paths.
Security: work with local stakeholders and STIB to provide care for people with drug addictions, effectively follow up complaints of theft and break-ins, improve reporting conditions for victims of domestic violence, harassment or sexual assault, prevent computer and phone scams by educating vulnerable groups.
Housing: combat substandard, unoccupied and unfinished housing, inform people living in unfit housing of their rights, support landlords in home renovations, increase the rate of social housing to reach the regional average of 7.2%, integrate them to avoid ghettoisation, develop middle-income housing.
Full list programme here.
13. PTB-PVDA
Lead candidate: Sacha Moens
Number of candidates on the list: 12
Cleanliness: install underground containers, two collections of orange and white bins every week, monthly collections of bulky items per district, campaigns to educate people about cleanliness, give permanent contracts to street cleaners.
Mobility: ensure that every neighbourhood has housing, schools, crèches, leisure, shopping and work facilities so they don't have to travel, transport goods by tram, waterways and rail to reduce road transport, advocate free public transport for the whole Region, increase the frequency of public transport and redesign the streets to limit the speed of cars.
Security: easily accessible police stations that are also open at night, a policy of proximity to locals for policing, ensure presence of stewards in STIB stations and at major stops, refinance education to avoid young people getting involved in crime, zero tolerance for organised crime, improve help offered to victims.
Housing: lower rents through a grid that sets maximum prices according to accommodation quality, more controls on undeclared commercial AirBnbs, ensure at least a third of public housing in major private property projects, renovate social housing, 2% cap rent indexation in council and social housing, put property left empty for three years in commune's hands.
Full list programme here.
14. Volt Europa Etterbeek
Lead candidate: Brieuc Hallouët
Number of candidates on the list: 9
Cleanliness and public space: replace concrete spaces with plants, trees and shrubs, more public drinking fountains, work towards the installation of underground waste containers, create more urban vegetable gardens.
Mobility: clear and universal standards for cycle lanes, more uniform bicycle parking, advocate monthly Car-Free Sundays to reduce pollution, increase connections to Merode and Etterbeek stations.
Security: eco-friendly and safe street lighting at key junctions, provide a clearer role for community guards so that residents know why, how and when to contact them, more night patrols.
Housing: increase the proportion of social housing in the municipality to reach 8% by 2035 through major redevelopments of old buildings, increase the number of new energy-efficient buildings, ensure inclusive renovation of the former town hall (allocate 50% of the future flats to public social housing).
Full list programme here.
