Belgium· hard
politique du gaufrier
“waffle iron policy”
Meaning
dividing public funds equally between two regions regardless of need
Explanation
A waffle iron presses two identical halves at once, and Belgian public spending worked much the same way for decades. Money for a project in one language region had to be matched, franc for franc, with a comparable project in the other, whether or not the second project made much sense. It kept an uneasy peace between Flanders and Wallonia, at the cost of a lot of pointless spending.
Example
On ressort encore la politique du gaufrier chaque fois qu'un nouveau chantier ferroviaire est annoncé.
People still bring up the waffle iron policy every time a new rail project is announced.
Origin
Belgian French calques the Dutch 'wafelijzerpolitiek'. The practice mostly ended after the 1988 state reform handed the regions their own budgets, though it still gets invoked over federal matters like the railways.
Source