Why Belgium Cannot Form a Government and Keeps Going Anyway
July 2, 2026 · Frisian News
Belgium has been without a government for six months, yet the country functions normally. This raises a fundamental question: how essential is government really?
Belgium has been without a government for over six months. The country's main political parties remain deadlocked on everything from tax policy to pension reform. Yet trains run on time, schools operate, and shops stay open.
This is not new. Belgium set its own record in 2010-2011 by going 541 days without a functioning government. Before that, it held the world record. Each time, dire predictions came: the economy would collapse, the healthcare system would fail, the country would splinter. None of it happened. Belgium muddled through, as it always does. The real question is not why Belgium cannot form a government, but why Belgians keep pretending they need one.
The Flemish separatist party N-VA won the most seats in the 2024 election but refuses to govern with French-speaking parties from Wallonia. The Socialists, Greens, and Christian Democrats cannot agree on budget cuts. Flanders feels it subsidizes Wallonia. Wallonia fears Flanders will abandon it. These grievances are real, but they do not prevent buses from running.
A caretaker government, staffed by civil servants and holdovers from the last administration, manages day-to-day operations. Spending follows last year's budget. Officials delay urgent decisions. The bureaucracy does its job. No one calls this a crisis because it works.
Belgium's multi-year government vacancies reveal something most democracies refuse to admit: much of government is theater. Tax collectors do their work. Police work. Schools teach. Officials pay pensions. The machinery runs without politicians arguing in parliament for six months. This is not a flaw in Belgium. It is a feature that exposes how much of what politicians do is unnecessary. Belgium's inability to form a government is not a problem to solve. It is evidence that governments are far less essential than we have been told.
Published July 2, 2026 · Frisian News