Belgian Parliament

Today for a class trip we went to the Belgian federal parliament building in downtown Brussels. The political system in Belgium is one of the most complex in the world, so I will try to explain it briefly: there are three regions (Dutch-speaking Flanders in the North, bilingual Brussels, and French-speaking Wallonia in the South) that each have a parliament, as well as three language communities (Dutch, French, German) that also each have a parliament. These parliaments make decisions in policy areas such as education, employment, environmental protection, etc. But on top of this is a federal parliament which deals with more serious issues, such as defense, and this is the establishment we visited today. Its decisions are binding over the entire country and supercede decisions made on the regional or community level. Oh yeah, and there's a king in Belgium too, but he doesn't have any political power. Confused yet?

The building is quite impressive, with most rooms lined with portraits of previous leaders and accented with gold-plated cielings and ornate furniture. The most impressive room, aesthetically speaking, is the Senate, which has a cieling plated in 18 karat gold and has three humongous paintings above where the head of the Senate speaks. This is not to mention the intricate wood carvings and busts of important figures in Belgian history that also occupy the room. The Senate is way nicer than the House of Representatives, because originally only people from the nobility served in the Senate, so naturally they had to make the room as impressive as possible.

The one downside to the visit was the unbelievably dry and drawn-out tour by our guide, who essentially gave us a lecture (lasting over 2 hours) about how the federal parliament operates, what conditions are necessary to draft and pass legislation, etc. While interesting to visit, as you can imagine, the description in broken English of how such a complex political system works was not the most invigorating part of my day. But none the less it was an impressive building, and it is cool to say I've seen it, since it is roughly equivalent to visiting the chambers of the U.S. Congress.