Demonstrators took to the streets of Brussels on Tuesday, disrupting air traffic and public transit during a national strike protesting proposed austerity measures by the government.
The strike was led by the country’s major trade unions, who object to proposed changes in laws that affect pensions, working conditions and salaries.
The strike is the latest in a series organized by the trade unions since a new federal coalition government took office earlier this year, vowing to put Belgium’s ailing budget in order. The police estimated that 80,000 people protested on Tuesday.
At Brussels Airport, Belgium’s largest, all departing flights and around half of incoming flights were canceled as security staff and baggage handlers joined the strike, an airport official said. More than 300 flights and 48,000 passengers were affected. All flights were canceled at Charleroi Airport, the country’s second largest, an official there said.
Trains within Belgium ran as usual, but public transit was disrupted in Brussels and elsewhere. In the region of Flanders, four out of 10 buses and trams were not in service, an official there said.
Protesters gathered at Brussels North Station in the morning, with some setting off firecrackers and flares, and marched through the city center to Brussels South Station.
At around noon, the police arrested several dozen protesters after a government building on Pacheco Boulevard was vandalized with projectiles, paint bombs and firecrackers, the police said in a statement.
In July, the government proposed changes in laws governing pensions, the labor market, health care and taxation in what Prime Minister Bart De Wever called “the biggest socio-economic reforms of the century.” Unions and opposition parties criticized the proposals as eroding the country’s welfare system.
The government is currently in budget talks and wants to reduce the country’s deficit by at least another 10 billion euros — about $11.6 billion — by 2029.
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