The Flamingo Shot Down by the Flamingos!

[Carl de Moncharline] Brussels wants to be a cosmopolitan city on the move, but the movement is toppling in a country where the blind are kings. In a short time, we have gone from the Cosmopolitan to the Molotov cocktail… and yet behind the light of the terraces lies a financial field of ruins. The attack came from a neighborhood committee… it's a classic scenario that I know well. An entrepreneur had revived a neighborhood known for its sidewalks, prostitution and freely available drugs, rather than for its facades. Then life patiently reclaimed its rights. The residents returned. And, with them, the first complaints against the very thing that, however, had brought them back. While everyone has their reasons, from the operator legitimately fighting for economic survival by holding more events, to the residents legitimately demanding quiet nights, common sense would have dictated that the neighborhood committee alert the City and that the latter take up its responsibilities. The very essence of a municipal policy worthy of the name is to convene a consultation meeting at the office between the operator and the residents to endorse pragmatic solutions. Instead of arbitrating, the authorities' inaction allowed the situation to fester to the point of a media frenzy. An incriminating article in a click-hungry press solves nothing: it further weakens a business owner on the brink of collapse without offering any lasting guarantee to the residents. And when the City of Brussels offered a curt « no comment » in the Standaard of September 10, 2026, it didn't just flee from journalists: it abandoned its role as a mediator in the face of the Brussels Horeca sector's distress. The end of a cycle replaced by… “nothing” When one establishment closes its doors, another takes its place a few weeks later. On the elected officials' side, they are satisfied with an «everything's fine», for want of seeing any better. It must be said that they already have the hardest time in the world spotting concrete blocks or tunnels planted in a traffic lane for more than five years and which penalize commerce far more than cars do. Only yesterday, as the great Charles sang, an establishment could last for thirty years and sell its business goodwill upon a well-deserved retirement, to finally enjoy the hard labor of its twelve-hour days, often seven days a week. Today, many don't last more than three years and leave nothing but debts, for themselves as well as for their suppliers. Nobody wants this life. This is the case, for example, for l'Entrée des Artistes, which has seen a succession of owners in recent years, and few of us notice: the lights are always on, like those on the terraces, but they have been floored. A reality that seems quite invisible to those who prefer to secure their own future rather than that of the citizens who elected them, through instagrammable grandstanding in anticipation of the next elections, instead of rolling them up. And yet, it's not for lack of being constantly alerted by the profession, like the rant from the president of the Fédération Horeca Bruxelles, Matthieu Léonard, who had mentioned the possibility of no longer welcoming politicians in his establishments, or even unplugging the « black boxes », as reported by « La Dernière Heure » in its August 27, 2026 edition, or the thunderous rants of Toto Bongiorno signaling the distress of restaurateurs in #CentPourCentBelge on LN24, whose clicks now only benefit Facebook, which sells the time we no longer spend at the restaurant. They are not just blind, they are also deaf. La Sœur du Patron, Mirabelle, Manufacture, Cook & Book, Balmoral, Petits Bouchons, Toucan sur Mer… So many places that are disappearing: a real house of cards with a domino effect, coupled with a Domino’s Pizza effect. It must be said, for those who still don't hear, that the explosion of fixed costs doesn't help: automatic wage indexation, rising energy costs, raw material inflation… The gross margin has melted to zero. At the same time, teleworking and the decline in purchasing power are reducing how often people go out. To this is added the widespread use of the black box, combined with increased inspections from the ONSS and tax authorities: the last bits of leeway have disappeared. Ironically: by tightening the fiscal screws, the State and the Region are themselves precipitating the bankruptcy of these establishments, only to find themselves with millions of euros in unrecoverable debts. The numbers leave no room for doubt. Between mid-2025 and mid-2026, 2,137 Horeca establishments went bankrupt, taking 5,631 salaried jobs with them. These bankruptcies primarily affect young businesses less than four years old, to the benefit of fast food. And as if that weren't enough, the anxiety-inducing news on social media and the imminent ban on cigarettes on terraces will cause them to lose even more customers. On the ground, the economic reality, described on condition of anonymity by an owner of several establishments, is stark: «Even a sole at 59 euros no longer generates the slightest margin. The economic equation of the Brussels Horeca sector is broken.» Unfortunately, as long as business brokers continue to dress up every bankruptcy as an «extraordinary opportunity» and every financial corpse as a «promising takeover», there is very little chance that an awareness will emerge among our leaders. 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