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.Alain de Gueldre et al., Kroniek van België (Antwerp and Zaventem, 1987). 25 January – About 3,000 gendarmes demonstrate in Brussels for better working conditions.
February 5 February – Publication of a report into working practices in the Belgian postal service reveals massive inefficiency.
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. 15 April – Prime Minister Wilfried Martens and Deputy Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt lay the first stone of the Flanders Expo convention centre in Ghent. 29 April – R.W.D. Molenbeek football club goes into receivership.
May 3 May – Sandra Kim wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1986 singing "J'aime la vie". 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. 30 May – About 50,000 protest against government austerity measures in a demonstration organised by the General Federation of Belgian Labour.
June 25 June – Former prime minister Paul Vanden Boeynants convicted of fraud. 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.
October 12 October – Renovated La Monnaie opera house reopens with a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. 18 October – Interior Minister Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb resigns in protest over the government's stance on the language struggle in Voeren. 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.
December 12 December – A bank robber shot by police in Anderlecht turns out to be a policeman himself.
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
References