Belgium’s prime minister has until Tuesday to close a budget deal. On Friday, a huge crowd made sure he knows what they think of it. Police counted roughly 30,000 marchers in Brussels at a union-led day of action against spending cuts; the socialist union ABVV put the figure at 50,000.
Union members in red and green walked from Brussels Central to Brussels-Midi without incident, with banners demanding that the government keep its hands off people’s wallets. The trouble came at the edges. Dozens of masked young people in black hurled stones, bottles and fireworks at officers near the central station and set fires, one of them fed by a heap of shared bikes and e-scooters. Officers in riot gear pushed them back using batons, water cannon and clouds of tear gas. Both police and union leaders insisted the rioters had no link to the march.
The anger is aimed at Bart De Wever, the Flemish conservative who leads a coalition trying to find about 10 billion euros in savings over the coming years. Ideas on the table include changes to Belgium’s automatic wage indexation, higher VAT and annualised working hours. Unions argue the burden should fall on top earners instead, and this was only the latest of several walkouts since the summer.
Students have added their own voice. In Liège, a week of school protests against education cuts, partly inspired by unrest in neighbouring France, ended in a ban on gatherings and more than 200 arrests. Some of those young people turned up in the capital as well.
For many marchers the issue is simply the monthly bill. Marie Gobert, who raises her children alone and works in social care in Namur, told reporters that her job no longer covers the basics, citing pricier school costs and train fares. With a budget deadline of 13 October, De Wever now has days, not weeks, to show he can steer the country’s heavy debt load down without losing the street entirely.
