Brussels: a politically incorrect sketch

There's an elephant in the hallway (and everyone is keeping quiet about it).' This is how Luckas Vander Taelen's new book about Brussels, the city where he has lived for over thirty years, begins. As a columnist for De Standaard, Vander Taelen has built up a reputation in recent years as a 'politically incorrect' observer of his city. In Brussels. A politically incorrect sketch, he takes stock of everything that is preventing Brussels from becoming a flourishing European metropolis. He points to the political class that is aware of Brussels' problems, but refuses to see them. Demographers expect spectacular population growth in Brussels, but the local political barons want to continue to govern the city from their nineteen town halls, against their better judgment. Any criticism of this outdated structure is dismissed as a Flemish conspiracy. Luckas Vander Taelen discusses the problems and challenges that Brussels will face in the coming years. He also takes the reader on a special walk from the Central Station to the Rogierplein to show the attacks on the urban fabric of Brussels. Luckas Vander Taelen (1958) is a member of the Flemish Parliament for Groen. In 2006, Vander Taelen published Waar ben je nu (Where are you now), about the death of his sister Anna, at Van Halewyck. He previously wrote Berichten uit Brussel (2010) and Brussel, de tijdbom tikt verder (2011) about Brussels.