Municipal and provincial councilors
Local elections, which take place every six years, make it possible to renew the members of municipal and provincial councils, bodies essential to the proper functioning of municipalities and provinces in Belgium.
The number of elected councilors depends on the population of each municipality or province. These councils, real local legislative bodies, play a crucial role in the daily management of communities. They are notably responsible for adopting budgets, implementing regulations, ordinances and motions, as well as questioning members of the municipal or provincial college.
Belgium has ten provinces: five in Wallonia and five in Flanders. Please note that Brussels voters do not participate in provincial elections, because the Brussels-Capital Region is not part of any province.
The appointment of mayors
Like the processes in place at the federal and regional level, political parties begin negotiations after local elections to form majorities within municipal and provincial councils. The municipal college is made up of the mayor and aldermen, while the provincial college (called deputation in Flanders) is made up of deputies.
In Wallonia, the future mayor will be the candidate having received the greatest number of preference votes on the dominant list of the municipal coalition. This mechanism will also be applied for the first time in Flanders after the October elections. However, in the Brussels Region and in the nine German-speaking municipalities (located in Wallonia), the choice of mayor is made by agreement between the coalition partners. As for the presidency of the provincial college, it is generally entrusted to a deputy from the majority party, although this is also the subject of political negotiations.
The skills of the municipalities
The municipality is a fairly atypical level of power in the Belgian institutional landscape. It certainly enjoys broad autonomy (communal autonomy is sacred in the country) to carry out policies in a whole series of areas: economy, tourism, social promotion, culture, mobility, sport, housing, town planning, environment, youth and childhood, taxation, etc. But, at the same time, the municipality is a power subordinate to other levels of power (federal state, region, community, province) for which it carries out missions. For example, it must keep population registers up to date, ensure the maintenance of public order thanks to the local police, maintain municipal roads, organize primary education or co-finance a CPAS (public social action center) on its territory. .
