Brussels mayor angry at EU officials for shunning local election

‘It makes me angry that even civil servants don’t bother to register to vote,’ Philippe Close says.

The mayor of Brussels, Philippe Close, has criticized European Commission officials for not registering to vote in next month’s local elections.

“I sense that the expat community is getting increasingly involved in Brussels politics,” Close told POLITICO in an interview. “But it is a big frustration that it does not register to vote.”

Close took particular aim at Commission officials for not taking part in local democracy. “It makes me angry that even civil servants don’t bother to register to vote for the local elections,” he declared.

Close is responsible for the City of Brussels, one of the wider city’s 19 municipalities. His district includes the European quarter that houses most of the EU’s main institutions.

Half of the roughly 90,000 citizens entitled to vote in the municipality don’t have Belgian nationality — and 74 percent of them are EU citizens.

But only 7,255 foreign citizens registered to vote in the October 14 elections — 16 percent of those eligible to do so, according to city hall. The proportion was even lower among EU citizens, at just 15 percent.

The low figures come despite a campaign by activists and local authorities to mobilize expat voters to register for the local elections.

In Belgium, voting is compulsory for those who have registered to vote. In theory, failing to vote can result in a fine ranging from €25 to €125, although no such fines have been issued since 2003, according to Thomas Huddleston, coordinator for the Vote Brussels media campaign.

Close, a Socialist, pledged to put the city’s communities at the heart of his election campaign program, unveiled on Tuesday.

“I will keep telling expats: ‘vous êtes Bruxellois,’” Close said in the interview, noting that three out of four EU officials stay in Brussels after retirement.

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