At the Iris Celebration on Thursday at the Brussels Parliament, Brussels poet Farbod Fathinejad delivered a powerful critique of the city’s politics for its failure to establish a new government.
The Brussels Parliament convened for the 36th anniversary of the Brussels-Capital Region, featuring traditional speeches. A standout moment was a poem by local poet Farbod Fathinejad. Lotte Stoops, vice-president of the parliament and a member of the Groen party, allotted ten minutes of her speaking time to him.
In her address, Stoops had already criticised the political deadlock and advocated for participatory democracy amid the inadequacies of representative democracy. She chose to let the poet speak as a voice of the city, inspired after hearing him by chance the week before.
Fathinejad’s poem turned out to be a vehement denunciation. "Outside, armed youths are filling a power vacuum that you, Brussels, have allowed," he decried. "And you waver, and the city is scarred. There is no plan and no vision, only video messages and speeches."
"Three hundred and forty days without a government, without backbone. Three hundred and sixty organisations come to a standstill, community centres close, children learn to dance on the brink of despair. And what do you do, Brussels leaders? Rien. Niks. You have evaporated and remain silent. Your silence is not a mistake but a structural failure," he further criticised.
The poem ended with a fervent call to action: "Look closely. This is not a story. This is Brussels, your Brussels, my Brussels, our Brussels. As long as you sip champagne and wine while people outside gasp for air, every standstill is an act — not of neutrality, but of cowardice."
The applause from parliament members was minimal, indicating limited appreciation for the poem. Such academic sessions typically only feature speeches from the minister-president, the president, and the vice-president of the parliament.
Stoops later commented that she was "largely aware" of the poem’s content, although she requested the removal of specific names. She explained that her decision to surrender a portion of her speaking time aligned with the theme of her speech.
Stoops admitted that hearing the poem initially made her uncomfortable. "But we must dare to hear the uncomfortable truth," she stated. For her, it’s an artist’s role to convey such challenging messages. "As a parliament member, I am well aware that we are indeed engaged with various issues, but this is about how people perceive it."
