Brussels Budget Halves Deficit, PS Faces PR Stunt Charge

The government of the Brussels-Capital Region reached an agreement on its 2027 budget over the weekend of 4-5 October, halving the regional deficit to 719 million euros and setting a course toward balance by 2029. But the deal, announced by Minister-President Boris Dillies (MR) and Finance and Budget Minister Dirk De Smedt (Anders), has been met with sharp criticism — including accusations that the majority, and particularly the socialist PS, staged a publicity stunt and produced a budget that looks painless but is unrealistic.

The agreement was presented to the Brussels Parliament on Monday 5 October and dominated Belgian political debate the following morning, when commentators on RTBF’s Matin Première questioned whether the numbers hold up.

A Deficit Halved — On Paper

According to Dillies, the regional deficit will fall from around 1.3 billion euros this year to 719 million euros in 2027. “We started from a deficit of more than 1.3 billion euros, and today we have halved it, moving to 719 million,” he said during an interview on La Première. De Smedt framed the trajectory in even starker terms: from a deficit of 1.6 billion euros in 2025 to 719 million euros in 2027.

The government says it will achieve roughly 145 million euros in savings for 2027 without introducing new taxes and without raising public service tariffs — STIB fares, family allowances and titres-services are left unchanged. The agreement also includes administrative reform: 23 administrations will be consolidated into four pillars, a hiring moratorium is maintained through 2027 with no systematic replacement of departures, and the Ducale and Regent buildings housing the Minister-President’s offices will be sold, with Dillies relocating to the BIP at Place Royale. He told La Première the move would cut his cabinet spending by 20%.

Debt service alone accounts for more than 550 million euros per year, Dillies noted, underscoring how much of the region’s budget is consumed before any policy is funded.

The Code 8 Question and a Budget Not Really Closed

Critics argue the improvement rests partly on an accounting maneuver. Dorian de Meeûs, editor-in-chief of La Libre Belgique, told RTBF’s Matin Première that the government overused code 8, which allows an expenditure to be booked as an investment. “We overused code 8… but social housing, Vivaqua — can we really talk about investments? It’s still debt,” he said. He added, bluntly: “It’s not complicated, it’s your children who are going to pay for this, not us today.”

The budget also remains contested at the political level. MR president Georges-Louis Bouchez has refused any budget that includes the 131 million euros earmarked to recapitalise the SLRB, the Brussels social housing body, as long as Lotfi Mostefa — who is under a double judicial investigation — remains at the head of the Foyer anderlechtois. As the RTBF press review reported, La Libre asked whether the Brussels budget “really stands up,” concluding that, after Bouchez’s veto, “the 2027 budget is not really closed.”

Le Soir made a similar point politely: when partners in a majority cannot agree on what was decided just hours earlier, it hardly helps convince observers that the accounts are definitively locked down.

Painless — Or Simply Unrealistic?

The central criticism is a comparison with Flanders. According to the RTBF press review, De Tijd asked how a region described as cash-strapped avoids touching residents’ wallets when wealthier Flanders imposed heavy measures on family allowances and titres-services. De Meeûs echoed the discomfort on Matin Première: “It’s excessively embarrassing to see that in Flanders they are making considerable efforts… while here we continue to have a significant deficit.”

Martine Dubuisson, deputy head of the political desk at Le Soir, said it is difficult to see where the savings will actually be found. “It has become a habit in recent years. We insist on the positive… but saying how we are really going to find the money, where it will hurt — that, we don’t talk about much,” she said.

De Meeûs framed the budget partly as a communication exercise, and one especially useful to the PS — the only level of government where the party is not in opposition. “They can say ‘look, we didn’t touch the BIM status, we didn’t touch the STIB fare, we didn’t touch family allowances’… Obviously that’s very good — that is, with the Socialist Party in power, we hurt citizens less,” he said.

What the Budget Does Include

Despite the controversy, the agreement contains a broad set of measures. On housing, the Be Home prime is doubled from 164 to 328 euros, 104 million euros is earmarked to build or sell more than 1,000 homes via Citydev.brussels, and rent allowances and rehousing support are maintained. A programme of 66 million euros per year will offer zero-interest loans for energy and renovation work, entering into force in spring 2027 and gradually replacing the Renolution primes. Social Action and Solidarity Minister Ahmed Laaouej (PS) said the region “will allow Brussels residents to borrow at lower cost.”

On taxation, the vehicle circulation tax is reformed so that small city cars and zero-emission vehicles are exempt from the annual circulation tax from the second half of 2027. Dillies also confirmed a doubling of Be.Home tax relief for owner-occupiers and a 1% cut to the regional rate of personal income tax, arguing “the taxpayer is already squeezed like a lemon, and it is first of all up to the state to set an example.”

On employment, the government plans a growing effort — 40 million euros in 2026, rising to 75 million euros by 2029 — with a target of a 70% employment rate by 2030, equivalent to 50,000 additional jobs. The Activa aid scheme, worth 27 million euros and reaching only a 10% activation rate, will end, and Actiris will be refocused so that seven in ten agents work on the ground.

Security and cleanliness receive 69 million euros for the global security and prevention plan, 10 million euros for SIAMU (including 92 recruits), and 20 million euros for a new SIAMU headquarters. The government cited 92 shootings in 2024, 102 in 2025, and 69 by the end of summer 2026.

What to Watch

The Brussels Parliament is due to discuss the agreement, and the coming weeks will test whether the government can close the gap between its optimistic headline number and the fine print. The SLRB question — and whether Bouchez’s veto holds — remains the most immediate threat to the deal’s credibility, while the code 8 accounting and the Flanders comparison are likely to keep fueling the painless-or-unrealistic debate.

For Dillies, the message is patience. “Straightening out a Region takes time,” he said. “We have a little less than 1,000 days left.” Whether those days produce the results the government promises — or simply defer the cost, as critics allege — is the question Brussels now faces.