# 1986 in Belgium

Events in the year 1986 in Belgium.

## Incumbents

* Monarch: Baudouin
* Prime Minister: Wilfried Martens

## Events
### January

* 1 January – Breakout of 14 inmates from Arlon prison.$^{:1008}$
* 25 January – About 3,000 gendarmes demonstrate in Brussels for better working conditions.$^{:1008}$

### February

* 5 February – Publication of a report into working practices in the Belgian postal service reveals massive inefficiency.$^{:2008}$

### March

* 17 March – Albert Houssiau appointed bishop of Liège by Pope John Paul II

### April

* 12 April – About 20,000 march in Hasselt to demand that Limburg's mines be kept open.$^{:1009}$
* 15 April – Prime Minister Wilfried Martens and Deputy Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt lay the first stone of the Flanders Expo convention centre in Ghent.$^{:1011}$
* 29 April – R.W.D. Molenbeek football club goes into receivership.$^{:1008}$

### May

* 3 May – Sandra Kim wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1986 singing "J'aime la vie".$^{:1009}$
* 18 May – Albert Houssiau consecrated bishop of Liège
* 29 May – The Flag of Europe first flown in front of the Commission of the European Communities in Brussels.$^{:1010}$
* 30 May – About 50,000 protest against government austerity measures in a demonstration organised by the General Federation of Belgian Labour.$^{:1009}$

### June

* 25 June – Former prime minister Paul Vanden Boeynants convicted of fraud.$^{:1010}$
* 30 June – Massive public celebration of the return of the Belgium national football team after placing fourth in the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico.$^{:1010}$

### October

* 12 October – Renovated La Monnaie opera house reopens with a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.$^{:1010}$
* 18 October – Interior Minister Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb resigns in protest over the government's stance on the language struggle in Voeren.$^{:1011}$
* 21 October – An accident occurs in Kwaadmechelen with a Transnuklear transport from Krümmel Nuclear Power Plant to SCK CEN in Mol. Nuclear waste being transported does not correspond to the documents, later bringing a bribery scandal to light.
* 26 October – German-speaking Community Council election

### November

* 14 November – Hugo Claus receives the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren for The Sorrow of Belgium.$^{:1010}$

### December

* 12 December – A bank robber shot by police in Anderlecht turns out to be a policeman himself.$^{:1011}$

## Publications
### Reference series

* Biographie Nationale de Belgique, vol. 44 (supplement 16).
* OECD, Economic Surveys, 1985/1986: Belgium, Luxembourg

### Books

* Jonathan E. Helmreich, Gathering Rare Ores: The Diplomacy of Uranium Acquisition, 1943–1954 (Princeton University Press)

## Art and architecture
### Films

* Chantal Akerman (dir.), Golden Eighties

## Births

* 13 February – Sylvie De Caluwé, model
* 21 February – Prince Amedeo of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este
* 13 March – Ludovic Buysens, footballer
* 20 April – Onur Kaya, footballer
* 1 August – Michaël Van Geele, footballer
* 15 October – Sandra Kim, singer
* 22 October – Murat Akın, footballer
* 3 December – Annelien Coorevits, beauty queen

## Deaths

* 7 February – Armand Preud'homme, composer
* 3 April – Charles Moeller, scholar
* 2 June – Daniel Sternefeld, conductor
* 6 July – Flor Peeters, organist
* 23 August – Charles Janssens, actor
* 5 October – Jozef van Overstraeten, founder of the Flemish automobile association
* 16 October – Arthur Grumiaux, violinist
* 16 December – Marcel Quinet, composer
* 27 December – Louis Van Lint, painter
* 28 December – Karel Aerts, director of the BRT