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: Mariam El Hamidine (Ecolo)
Current coalition: Ecolo, PS-Vooruit
Number of seats on the council: 37
Population: 58,044 (Statbel)
Average income: €14,031 (Statbel)
Average cost of housing: The average price for a flat is €3,283/m2, while the average cost for a house is €3,142/m2 (Immoweb)
1. PS - Vooruit
Lead candidate: Charles Spapens (PS)
Number of candidates on the list: 37
Public spaces and housing: renovate Place Saint-Denis, favour the renovation of vacant buildings over the construction of new ones, ensure that there is a playground within a five minutes' walk of every home, launch a Sustainable Development programme, ensure that elderly people, students and single parents can avail of housing adapted to their needs.
Mobility: prioritise efficient public transport to reduce air pollution and ease congestion, take measures to slow down traffic, create more cycling infrastructure and parking for locals, ramp up dialogue with residents, install EV charging points.
Security: open a new police station in the centre of the commune, employ local police officers and deploy more patrols to deal with public nuisance at night, increase CCTV, simplify the complaints system and improve support systems for victims.
Full list programme here.
2. MR - DéFI
Lead candidate: Cédric Pierre-De Permentier (MR)
Number of candidates on the list: 37
Security: increase police presence and improve coordination between police, local groups and residents in the fight against drug use, reopen the police station, ensure that police patrols are constant, install more CCTV and equip officers with bodycams, request an audit of how the Midi police zone is managed.
Finance: reduce certain municipal expenses and municipal taxes, request an audit of the CPAS and the quality of its services, install a 'young independents' support service for jobseekers and other individuals looking to start a business.
Mobility: cancel the Good Move mobility plan in Forest, consult residents to create a mobility policy, ensure that pavements and cycle paths are safe and accessible to all, improve the public transport offering by defending the extension of tramline 7 under the Parc de Forest and extend the metro between Uccle and Forest.
Full list programme here.
4. Ecolo-Groen
Lead candidate: Séverine de Laveleye (Ecolo)
Number of candidates on the list: 37
Environment: reduce carbon emissions by focusing on energy consumption in communal and residential buildings, preserve green spaces, every resident should be within 300 metres of a green space, promote active lifestyles and favour public transport over cars, call on STIB to improve connections between upper and lower Forest, extend tramline 7.
Social justice: reduce health and social inequality with the creation of a position to coordinate all initiatives and through the Forest Health Plan, improve access to mental health support for young people, introduce a social housing quota for future urban developments, take advantage of regional subsidies and accelerate existing housing projects.
Security: focus on prevention in the fight against drug use and ensure that existing social help is made as visible as possible in affected areas, local police must spend at least 80% of their working hours in the commune and not elsewhere, reinstate a police unit specifically for Forest.
Cleanliness: lead information campaigns on how to sort and take out rubbish, create more underground waste containers and impose more sanctions for littering.
Full list programme here.
8. Les Engagés
Lead candidate: Stéphane Peycker
Number of candidates on the list: 25
Cleanliness: zero-tolerance for littering, coordinate with the Brussels-Capital Region to make rubbish collection more efficient and create more signposting in green spaces to protect them.
Security: increase police presence, install more CCTV and unlock more funding for police officers, end the impunity of perpetrators of sexual harassment by applying more sanctions, organise mediation sessions between security agents and locals as well as awareness sessions about crime prevention in schools.
Mobility: ensure that residents are involved in decision-making, revise the current parking layout which has introduced different zones, considered discriminatory, review public transport to ensure that the peripheries of Forest are better connected as well as general connection to Brussels-Midi station.
Full list programme here.
13. PTB-PVDA
Lead candidate: Simon de Beer
Number of candidates on the list: 37
Housing: cease the sale of public properties to private buyers and use these spaces for housing, green spaces, schools and crèches, create a register of all vacant buildings, create 100 social homes each year, cap rent indexation at 2%, tax vacant buildings.
Tax: make crèches free, reduce the price of administrative documents such as passports, end Forest National's fiscal advantages, introduce taxes for co-living residences and introduce the highest flat-rates possible for large businesses.
Mobility: oppose policies such as Good Move that do not take residents' needs into account, make better use of pre-existing parking spaces and favour public over private parking, call on STIB to introduce free public transport, improve bus and metro services and offer a better night bus service.
Full list programme here.
