By Kadir Duran – Bruxelles Korner
The “Arizona Government”: Brussels, the Phoenix of Belgium Facing a Social Canyon
Everyone knows Arizona, the southwestern U.S. state whose Grand Canyon, carved by the millennial erosion of the Colorado River, attracts millions of visitors each year. Arizona is also symbolized by the Phoenix, a city named after the mythical bird that rises from its ashes.
But in Belgium, another “Arizona” has emerged: a government whose reforms, far from inspiring admiration, are digging deep rifts in society.
Deep Reforms, Gaping Social Fractures
Like the canyon itself, the decisions taken by this “Arizona government” are cutting deep into the Belgian social landscape. Recent resolutions target in particular the long-term sick and the long-term unemployed. The result: an increased risk of evictions, unbearable pressure on already overstretched CPAS (public social welfare centers), and a growing sense of injustice among vulnerable citizens.
Frank Vandenbroucke, Minister of Health and Social Affairs, is the face of these reforms. On January 1, 2026, a new package of measures will come into force aimed at speeding up the return to work of long-term patients.
Back to Work… or Exclusion
Concretely, from the new year onwards, every medical certificate of incapacity will be automatically transmitted to the occupational physician, who must contact the patient no later than one month after the start of the leave. Certificates will be limited to three months, and doctors will now have to attach a “fit note” – an assessment of what the patient is still able to do.
Employers will have six months to put in place a reintegration plan. Otherwise, they will be required to pay solidarity contributions. Meanwhile, mutualities will see their funding increasingly linked to their ability to reintegrate long-term patients into the labor market.
For those without a work contract, mandatory registration with the employment service will be imposed, with an interview scheduled within the first month. As for very long-term patients, they will now have to see their doctor annually to reassess their “work capacity,” with disability benefits limited to 1, 2, or 5 years at most.
The Phoenix or the Abyss
Supporters present these measures as a springboard, a way of turning disability into opportunity, helping some to rise again “like a Phoenix.” But for many, the reality could resemble a social earthquake:
• A housing tsunami threatening families unable to pay their mortgages, forced to sell to survive.
• A domino effect weighing on CPAS, required to absorb ever more excluded individuals.
• A risk of mass layoffs looming if, from 2026, employers are obliged to finance part of sickness benefits.
These measures weigh particularly heavily on Brussels, a city where 11 out of 19 municipalities are already under regional supervision. And it is precisely these municipalities, often the most fragile, that will be hardest hit by social exclusions and evictions. A true financial abyss threatens to open beneath the Brussels Region. This raises a troubling question: could bankrupting Brussels be, for some, a strategic advantage to weaken the capital further and deepen the country’s division to the benefit of Flanders?
Brussels, the Phoenix of Belgium
The “Arizona government” has chosen its path: to dig deeper in the name of “reform.” But instead of a majestic canyon, what is opening is a social fault line.
And yet, if there is a place in Belgium that has always risen from its own ashes, it is Brussels. Just as the Phoenix is the emblem of Arizona, Brussels itself is the Phoenix of Belgium – battered, shaken, but always reborn. The question is whether this time, amid the erosion of protections and the weight of exclusion, the capital will still be able to rise again as Phoenix… or whether the abyss will finally prevail.
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