The Tale of Meritocracy

Following the European, federal, regional (June 2024) and municipal (October 2024) elections, Belgium has experienced a historic turning point, with conservative-identity political parties now occupying all levels of power. Among these parties, the Mouvement réformateur (MR, formerly the Liberal Party) and Les Engagés (formerly the Catholic Party) now form a majority bloc in French-speaking Belgium, enabling them to form a government at the federated entity level and join the federal coalition.

During the long electoral campaign (March 2024-October 2024), one of these parties notably promoted a narrative centered on the tale of merit. The main idea supported by this party, which breaks with left-wing parties, is to give all citizens the impression that they can get ahead by making the necessary efforts. This narrative concerns all aspects of socio-political life: budgetary efforts, reemployment of the unemployed, education, among others.

This paper proposes firstly to analyse the meritocratic narratives developed by these two parties during the electoral campaign (March 2024-October 2024), based on their political programs and the official communications of the two party leaders (Georges-Louis Bouchez and Maxime Prévot) in the French-speaking Belgian press and social media (Twitter and Facebook). Secondly, the paper proposes to analyse government agreements to identify the translations of these narratives into the public policies pursued by these parties, with particular attention paid to education policy, which focuses on the meritocratic narrative by developing the fairy tale of meritocratic schools.