Reductions in pensions and cuts for public service personnel were central themes as the country's three main unions joined hands to confront the new government of Prime Minister Bart De Wever, whose program to take on massive government debt includes measures that weigh heavy on the lower-income working classes.
Close to 100,000 protesters thronged the center of Brussels on Thursday while airports and public transport were largely paralyzed as trade unions took their ire to the streets over drastic plans of the new center-right government to revamp some of the foundations on which the nation's welfare state was built.
Acerbating the budgetary crisis, is increasing pressure from Belgium's NATO partners and especially the United States to increase the defense budget in line with the threshold of 2% of gross domestic product.
The boisterous crowds — estimated at 60,000 by police and at over 100,000 by the unions — marching through Brussels specifically targeted the government for plans to cut social services, and especially pensions.
De Wever, like Francken from the Flemish nationalist N-VA party, brought an eclectic mix of five parties together to break a 7-month deadlock in coalition talks, with the Flemish socialists as the only ones to lean somewhat to the left.
