Tensions flared inside the Brussels government on Thursday over extra funding for the Brussels Regional Housing Corporation (BGHM), deepening a dispute between the MR and the PS.
The row emerged during the government’s weekly meeting.
At the centre of the dispute is a €131 million recapitalisation for the BGHM, the social-housing public interest institution. The investment was included in the initial 2026 budget, but MR chairman Georges-Louis Bouchez had made it conditional on Lotfi Mostefa (PS) stepping aside as chairman of the Anderlechtse Haard housing company, which has been at the centre of controversy.
That position was reportedly raised on Thursday by Minister-President Boris Dilliès (MR). Speaking later in the evening, he said he was not calling the recapitalisation itself into question.
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However, Dilliès said he wanted the recommendations of the Brussels Parliament’s inquiry committee on Anderlechtse Haard to be implemented before the money is released.
“Before I release it, I am asking for two things: a clear financial plan and the implementation of the parliamentary inquiry committee’s recommendations for a more transparent, more objective and less politicised allocation system. As soon as those guarantees are in place, the money will be transferred,” he said.
The PS considers the €131 million recapitalisation to have been politically secured when the 2026 budget agreement was reached.
For the French-speaking socialists, Dilliès is putting his government at risk over what they see as a local issue. The party also claims there was an attempt to approve a notification that did not reflect the decisions taken during the budget conclave.
According to a socialist source, that included a disputed provision linked to “voluntary departure plans” for jobs in government departments under the authority of liberal ministers.
Finance Minister Dirk De Smedt (Anders) said in Le Soir that the decision on the additional BGHM funding had indeed been taken in the initial 2026 budget, but that its implementation still depended on the government, which must also rule on the matter.
