Efforts to win over voters often lead to a flurry of promises as parties out-bid each other. But their desire to persuade often goes beyond the realms of what is financially feasible, something seen not just in Belgium but around the world as campaigns sell prosperity in a period of economic uncertainty.
Thankfully Belgium has a public body charged with weighing up the policy proposals of rival parties to paint a more detailed picture of how the country's balance books would look if their measures were implemented. It's the second time the Federal Planning Bureau has performed this assessment before a general election and the task involved financial specialists of all political shades.
Unlike in the run-up to the 2019 election, parties were much more engaged with the process and submitted significantly more comprehensive lists of policies they would introduce. A total of 301 priority measures were costed by the FPB, which could then gauge how each party would impact Belgium's finances.
Most pertinently, the effect policies would have on economic growth, public debt, and budget deficit over a five year mandate were calculated. Some results were surprising: the Socialist Party (often smeared as spendthrifts by opponents) would by the FPB's reckoning deliver a strong economic programme. By contrast, the liberal MR party – which vaunts its pro-business policies as key to improving Belgium's fortunes – scored considerably worse.
Parties were quick to boast their good grades or rubbish the FPB methods, depending on how they were ranked. The findings have served as yet more ammunition for candidates to lampoon each other with, or in some cases pour water on the very notion of economic performance being the metric by which we compare parties.
Importantly, no parties would bring Belgium's deficit below the 3% limit required by the EU. And even more importantly, judging parties in isolation is of limited utility given that an eventual government will be composed of several parties, whose policy decisions will fall in the as yet unknown grey zone of compromis à la belge.
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