Petition is addressed to: Brusselaars

On Monday, June 9 at 12 p.m., exactly one year after the elections, we invite everyone to the Place de la Bourse for a massive sit-in. Bring your picnic and a blanket. Bring drums, trumpets, friends, family and neighbours. Share your food, your anger and your ideas.

We gather out of love for our city. Because we believe in its strength, its people, its creativity and its energy. We have one simple demand. Respect for Brussels. Respect as the foundation of cooperation and the engine of change.

June 9 is a grim anniversary. This day marks a full year of irresponsible political deadlock — and a shameless dismantling of our democratic system. No vision. No accountability. Zero substance. Instead of leadership, we get a suffocating display of collective political failure. By failing to form a government, our elected “representatives” prove that the current structure no longer works.

We demand respect for the city we share.
Brussels is a vibrant metropolis with its own identity and reality. The city cannot be confined by Belgium’s rigid communautaire framework. It’s a place people live together — but that shared life is under pressure from the contempt shown by our politicians. Their non-actions make our streets harder and harsher by the day.

We’re tired of stumbling over endless construction sites. We’ve had enough of the rising violence. We are disheartened by the lack of change, after yet another case of mismanagement. We refuse to keep losing opportunities because of a lack of political cooperation. Safety, liveability, cleanliness, housing, jobs — these aren’t just campaign slogans. They’re fundamental rights.

We demand a political structure that respects Brussels' metropolitan identity and guarantees fundamental rights.

We demand respect for the people who hold this city together. 
Respect for our youth — who dream of more but run into less. Respect for everyone who lives, works, struggles and builds their life here. From social workers, artists and activists to labourers, civil servants and entrepreneurs — thousands of people work every day to make Brussels a livable city. They keep our city going, out of love for Brussels and its people. They deserve respect and recognition — but they get a paralysing system in return.

Brussels deserves better than a bureaucratic maze of overlapping mandates and authorities. We really don’t need 589 elected officials and 42 institutions to paint a crosswalk, activate a jobseeker or guarantee basic care. For comparison: London has 25 elected representatives. New York has 60. This structure costs Brussels residents a staggering €1.2 billion per year.

We demand policies that strengthen and connect.

We demand respect for our future.
Brussels’ debt is growing at alarming speed. The political indifference with which this crisis is dismissed has disastrous consequences — for Brussels and for the country as a whole. And the ones who suffer most are those who have no voice in the debate: 10,000 unhoused people, 100,000 undocumented residents, 270,000 children and young people., 375,000 people living in poverty. They don’t have the luxury to write or read this message. They are going under fast — and the rest of the city isn’t far behind. Except the Brussels parliamentarians. They continue to protect their own future and salaries first. Our future, it seems, matters less.

We demand a lean and efficient political structure.

Brussels is at a crossroads.
When a system’s weaknesses are exploited for personal gain, reform becomes urgent. If we don’t act now, we all go down together. We won’t let that happen. It can — and must — be different. With courage. With respect. With a radical reform of Brussels' institutions.

On June 9, we’re putting that demand at the top of the agenda — out of respect for Brussels. That requires courageous politicians who are willing to take responsibility. We want to support them. But if they keep stalling, we’ll do it ourselves. As citizens. Together. With tens of thousands. We start at Place de la Bourse. Because nobody voted for this. 

For respect.
For reform.
For Brussels.