Six months after elections, agreement reached on Schaerbeek mayor job share

Almost six months after the municipal elections, an agreement has been reached in Schaerbeek on the future mayor. The position will be shared by Audrey Henry (MR) and Hasan Koyuncu (PS).

Henry will start as mayor, Bruzz reports, and Koyuncu will take over in 2028.

Both MR-Les Engagés and the PS party won 10 seats in October’s elections. The outcome of the mayorship follows months of political negotiations and refining of details.

During Henry's mayoral term, Koyuncu will chair the city council. When Koyuncu takes over the mayorship in January 2028, the chairmanship of the city council will go to the MR-Les Engagés list.

In the coming weeks, negotiations on a coalition agreement will continue and Ecolo-Groen and the list of outgoing mayor Bernard Clerfayt (Défi), will also join the talks. This composition gives the coalition a large majority of 35 out of 47 seats.

The agreement between MR and PS about the mayorship in Schaerbeek could possibly speed up the formation of a Brussels regional government, which has been stalled for almost 300 days. The mayoralty in Schaerbeek has been used several times as a bargaining chip in those negotiations.

But, according to one anonymous negotiator, there’s no direct link between the Brussels negotiations and those in Schaerbeek: “Think of it more as a signal that the parties that won the elections in Brussels are indeed capable of reaching agreements.”