Saint-Josse-ten-Noode: densest municipality, re-elections

Belgium's densest municipality

Saint-Josse-ten-Noode is the smallest (1.16 km²) and densest municipality in Belgium (~23,185 inhabitants/km²). After the annulment of the October 2024 elections due to irregularities (proxy voting), a new vote was held on 9 February 2025. Emir Kir (independent, ex-PS) reinforced his absolute majority to 18/29 seats (55.6%).

Transparency: 3 out of 6 criteria

The budget is published online, the council has been broadcast via livestream on YouTube since 2018, and the mandate registry is accessible. Council minutes are partial (publication delays reported), citizen participation is limited to advisory councils, and there is no Open Data portal.

Financial crisis and coercive supervision

Saint-Josse is going through a financial crisis. The regional government reports a cumulative deficit of over EUR 30 million (2025 financial year), an amount contested by the mayor, who puts it at around EUR 17 million, points to "twenty-two million already saved" and states he has "not asked the Region for a single euro in twenty-four years". Between 2025 and 2026 the Brussels Regional Fund for the Refinancing of Municipal Treasuries (FRBRTC) intervened three times, for EUR 21 million in total; the municipality requested a deferral to repay a EUR 7 million loan.

On 28 May 2026 the regional cabinet activated the coercive supervision procedure (tutelle coercitive) over the municipality, on the initiative of the minister for local authorities, citing "shortcomings and unlawful practices" and "systemic dysfunctions" identified by the Brussels Local Authorities administration. The procedure provides for formal warnings and, if the irregularities persist, the appointment of a special commissioner tasked with restoring the finances and overseeing municipal decisions. This is the first municipal coercive supervision in Brussels since the Schaerbeek counters affair (1976).

To restore its finances, the municipality had already taken drastic measures: a massive increase in property tax (PRI) from 2,980 to 4,090 additional centimes (the steepest rise in the Region) and the abolition of the municipal staff year-end bonus. A fatal shooting in January 2026 reignited security concerns.

Confidence: official (cabinet decision + regional press release; deficit as a contested value Region/municipality). Sources: L'Avenir (28/05/2026) ; BRUZZ (28/05/2026) ; RTBF (28/05/2026).

AISSJ scandal: the regional audit revealed (9-10 June 2026)

On 9 June 2026, BRUZZ revealed the conclusions of the regional audit (Audit Brussels) of the AISSJ, the municipality's social rental agency, declared bankrupt in October 2025: according to the audit, the agency was undermined for more than twenty years by fraud in the allocation of social housing, with irregularities in 86% of the files examined — allocations to the benefit of relatives and acquaintances.

On 10 June, the municipal executive demanded 'full transparency', asked for access to the complete version of the audit — referred to the public prosecutor by the regional State Secretary for Housing as part of a judicial investigation — and announced it reserves the right to become a civil party. The executive stresses that none of its current members 'was associated with the AISSJ during the period of the alleged facts'; BRUZZ notes however that the facts cover a period of at least fifteen years during which sitting municipal councillors sat on the agency's board.

In the Brussels Parliament, the MR asks for the 'Foyer anderlechtois' parliamentary inquiry committee to be extended to the Saint-Josse case; Team Fouad Ahidar calls for a committee on the whole social housing sector (see Housing card). The affair adds to the coercive supervision activated over the municipality on 28 May.

Confidence: unconfirmed (audit not public, judicial investigation under way). Sources: BRUZZ — Gemeente Sint-Joost eist transparantie (10/06/2026) ; La DH (10/06/2026).

Brabant quarter: extended night-time closure (June 2026)

The municipal executive of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode is submitting to a municipal council vote on 30 June 2026 the three-month extension, until end of September 2026, of the night-time closure regulation for businesses (1am-6am) in the Brabant quarter, shared with Schaerbeek, without modification of the hours but excluding Rue Royale from the perimeter. Schaerbeek, for its part, relaxes the closing time to 3am at weekends. The executive cites a reduction in the share of violent acts committed at night. Full security context on the Security card.

Source: RTBF (23 June 2026). Confidence: unconfirmed (vote on 30 June).

Parking management delegated to parking.brussels (17 June 2026)

On 24 June 2026, the municipal council voted to delegate the operational management of on-street parking to the regional agency parking.brussels, from 1 February 2027. Saint-Josse-ten-Noode thus becomes the fourteenth of the nineteen Brussels municipalities to take this step. The regional agency will take over on-street enforcement and the management of exemption cards, while the municipality retains control of its parking policy and its parking rates. No job losses are announced; the resident card rises from five to fifteen euros.

Source: BX1 (17 June 2026). Confidence: official (municipal council vote).

The municipality contests the coercive supervision (9 July 2026)

On 9 July 2026, the municipality of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode sent the Region a 35-page letter, with annexes, formally contesting the coercive supervision procedure activated on 28 May 2026. The municipality describes the procedure as 'disproportionate' and 'unreasonable', states that most of the points raised would already have been regularised, and announces its intention to challenge it legally.

Source: press citing Belga (9 July 2026), consistently picked up by several media outlets. Confidence: unconfirmed to estimated (the municipality's position reported via the press; no public official document or identified regional response at this stage).

North Quarter: Council of State auditors reject the emergency appeals (10 August 2026)

On Monday 10 August 2026, the Council of State heard two appeals against the compulsory night-time closure of shops in the North Quarter, between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m.:

• an emergency suspension appeal brought by Schaerbeek shopkeepers;
• an appeal against the same measure on the Saint-Josse side, brought by a sex worker and by the organisations Espace P and Utsopi.

Both applications alleged shortcomings in the measure's justification, particularly on proportionality.

What the auditors' reports say

The auditors reject the urgency in both cases, finding it insufficiently established. In the Schaerbeek file, the auditor also ruled on the merits, on an extremely urgent basis, in the municipality's favour. No analysis on the merits was issued for the Saint-Josse file.

Both municipalities therefore get a first favourable signal, but with reservations: according to the press, the report is markedly less clear-cut on the merits than on urgency, and leaves doubt about a possible extension beyond the end of September 2026.

Why the distinction matters

An auditor's report is not a judgment. The auditor investigates and proposes; the court decides, and may depart from it. At this stage no judicial decision has been handed down on the measure's legality.

Timeline reminder: the night-time closure was adopted by Schaerbeek and Saint-Josse-ten-Noode in March 2026, took effect in early April, and was extended in June to the end of September 2026. Schaerbeek relaxed the hour to 3 a.m. on Friday-to-Saturday and Saturday-to-Sunday nights and on the eve of public holidays; Saint-Josse did not follow that relaxation.

Sources: L'Avenir (12 August 2026); La DH (12 August 2026). Confidence: unconfirmed. The hearing, the thrust of the auditors' reports and the distinction between the two municipalities are reported by two titles from the same press group; no auditor's report or judgment could be consulted.

A unique political context

The annulled and re-held elections constitute a unique case in the history of Brussels municipalities. The PS and Ecolo are excluded from any coalition by the outgoing mayor.

The municipality announces appeals against the Region (26 August 2026)

The college will propose to the next municipal council that it instruct its lawyers to launch judicial and administrative appeals against the Region, to prevent what it describes as "the organisation of its financial asphyxiation". The college denounces "a strategy of putting Saint-Josse-ten-Noode into financial difficulty".

The chain effect is the heart of the grievance: no approved 2024 accounts, no 2026 budget; no budget, no full access to regional funding mechanisms. The municipality does not appear in the one-hundred-and-fifty-million-euro envelope announced for Brussels municipalities in difficulty.

The office of the Minister for Local Authorities declined to comment.

The words "asphyxiation" and "strategy" are the municipal college's position, not an established finding.

Sources: La DH (26 August 2026) ; BRUZZ (26 August 2026). Confidence: estimated. Two separate newsrooms, but no primary source consulted: neither the college's deliberation nor the 30 July supervision decision.