Brussels Reshuffles the Deck

From PTB to PS: The El Mokadem Case, a Symptom of a Politically Exhausted Brussels

By Kadir Duran – Bruxelles Korner
Brussels, December 2025

The decision by Soulaimane El Mokadem, a former PTB deputy in Brussels, to join the Socialist Party (PS) goes far beyond a simple party switch. It is a politically revealing event, sitting at the crossroads of three deep-seated crises: Brussels’ institutional deadlock, the erosion of party coherence, and the growing democratic fatigue affecting the Brussels-Capital Region.

With 14,861 votes in the June 2024 regional elections, El Mokadem was no marginal figure. He ranked among the top regional vote-getters, embodying a popular PTB figure in several Brussels neighbourhoods. His departure from the party followed by his eventual rallying to the PS therefore reshuffles the parliamentary arithmetic, which has become increasingly obsessive in a region desperate for a governing majority.

A Decisive Yet Incomplete Gain for Yvan Verougstraete

From a strictly numerical perspective, this transfer strengthens Yvan Verougstraete’s attempt, as Brussels formateur, to build a centre-left majority without the MR.
On the French-speaking side, the lock is broken or at least loosened.

But Brussels is never governed on one leg alone.
A Dutch-speaking majority remains elusive, once again highlighting the institutional reality of the Region: every partial breakthrough continues to conceal an intact structural deadlock.

The PTB Confronted with Its Own Contradictions

The PTB’s reaction — demanding the return of the parliamentary seat in the name of loyalty to voters and the party programme — is consistent with its ideological line. Yet the El Mokadem affair exposes a deeper fault line: the human dimension of political mandates.

The deputy’s successive reversals temporary withdrawal for health reasons, announcement of joining the PS, retraction in the name of keeping one’s word, return as an independent MP, and finally full membership in the PS do not merely reflect individual instability. They illustrate the extreme pressure placed on elected officials, caught between party discipline, public exposure, and personal vulnerability.

A Political Word Losing Its Value

Ironically, El Mokadem himself repeatedly invoked the importance of honouring commitments and keeping one’s word.
Yet in a Brussels deprived of a government for months, where coalitions follow one another without result culminating in the much-discussed “Guinness coalition” political speech itself appears devalued, worn down by urgency and tactical calculations.

The isolated deputy thus becomes a symptomatic figure: neither fully free nor fully integrated, navigating a system increasingly incapable of producing stability.

A Tactical Victory, Not a Way Out of the Crisis

For Yvan Verougstraete, this rallying is a tactical breath of fresh air. It allows him to argue that his project is not stillborn.
But its foundations remain fragile:

• an arithmetical rather than ideological majority,

• dependence on politically unstable trajectories,

• and no solution on the Dutch-speaking side.

In short: one more piece added to the puzzle, but the overall picture remains blurred.

Beyond One Name: A Systemic Crisis

The El Mokadem case goes far beyond the man himself or any single party.
It reveals a structurally exhausted Brussels, where every seat becomes strategic, every elected official a variable of adjustment, and governance appears hostage to individual reversals.

The real question, therefore, is not merely who changed sides, but how long the Region can continue to function without a profound reform of its political and institutional model.