Thursday's national mobilisation has brought the country to a standstill – with Belgian unions arguing that the new Federal Government’s spending cuts have "little to do with getting the budget in order".
Last month, 30,000 people marched in Brussels for a national strike over planned cuts to pensions. N-VA leader and Belgium’s new Prime Minister Bart De Wever told strikers at the time: "The course is irreversible."
In his first speech as Prime Minister last week in the Federal Parliament, De Wever told Belgium's road ahead on spending cuts is "no walk in the park" amid a planned budgetary savings effort of €18 billion.
"As we do not want to raise taxes, we must therefore reform and save structurally," De Wever told the Chamber of Representatives last Tuesday.
Major cuts
Yet trade unions are holding firm. "There is even more anger now; many feel cheated," Günther Blauwens, President of the Flemish railway union ACOD Spoor, told The Brussels Times earlier this week. On Wednesday evening, unions announced another general strike on 31 March.
At play are the major socio-economic reforms and significant cuts to public spending, particularly on social welfare, pensions and public institutions like the equality body's budget, which is being slashed by 25%. While all coalition parties agreed that reforms were needed to improve budgetary pressures, who should foot the bill (i.e. the public) was a key sticking point during the talks.
Picture taken during a national strike in Brussels, Monday 13 January 2025. The demonstration is part of a national day of action to protest against the planned pension reforms of the ongoing Federal Government negotiations. Credit: Belga / Hatim Kaghat
Last year, one in 25 workers in Belgium were found to be in precarious employment, while 18.2% of the Belgian population was exposed to the risk of poverty or social exclusion. Critics of Arizona's austerity say the most vulnerable will face the harshest consequences for public service cuts – while supporters believe this is the only antidote to Belgium's ill economic health.
The European Union, meanwhile, is also pushing for Belgium to lower its public spending. Belgium's budget deficit could become one of the largest in Europe in the coming years, projected to grow to 4.7% of GDP in 2025 – up from 4,2% in 2023. Its public debt reached 105% of GDP in 2024.
In June, the European Commission hit the country with an excessive deficit procedure for breaching the thresholds for EU Member States' deficit (3% of GDP) and public debt (60% of GDP). It will require Belgium to reduce its budget deficit by at least 0.5% of GDP, either by cutting spending or boosting tax revenues.
Nothing to do with budget?
Yet Belgium's course is set. Last week, Prime Minister De Wever informed MPs that there would be a budgetary savings effort of €18 billion. With unions not backing down against the cuts, many ask how the country can respond to its budgetary pressures without hammering public services.
"There's different levels to this question in a very fundamental way," General-Secretary of ACV Puls (Christian Union), Lieveke Norga, told The Brussels Times. "Of course, we don't agree with the analysis that austerity is needed up to the point where the government is selling it."
"Most of all, we really think it is being abused to get through certain measures that basically don't have anything to do with getting the budget into order," she continued.
Man outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels. Credit: Belga
On the EU’s deficit procedure, Norga accepts that unions cannot change the European Commission's economic direction, and that Belgium will "face severe consequences" for not meeting budgetary expectations.
However, unions firmly believe there are other alternatives among the wealthiest, which are not being looked at. According to Swiss bank UBS’s 2023 Global Wealth Report, Belgium is the third wealthiest nation in the world based on median wealth – even if critics argue that these rankings do not take public debt into account.
"But there are, of course, different ways to try to influence the budget, in fiscal ways. In Belgium, there's certainly still a lot of margin when looking up to high income groups and capital," ACV Puls's General-Secretary stressed.
Indexed wages
During the 234 days it took to reach a new government, Flemish social democrats Vooruit proved to be a "useful" counterbalance for defending purchasing power during the negotiations, Norga continues.
While Belgium's unique wage indexation system (when salaries are adjusted to the cost of living for employees of companies) was initially up for discussion, it was not touched in the final Arizona agreement.
A poster of Prime Minister De Wever which reads 'Word leraar' (become a teacher) pictured during a national demonstration in Brussels, Monday 13 January 2025. Credit: Belga / Hatim Kaghat
"We always need to be aware that there's a high risk this will be put on the table over and over again," Norga continued. On the other hand, unions want an end to the government's "illegal" limitation on to right to collective bargaining in Belgium, which ties into the wage indexation debate.
"Every time when there's an inch of possibility to discuss our right to collective bargaining, then immediately the consequence would be to get rid of indexation because we can't have both," Norga explains. "So yeah, we can never trust that wage indexations will be guaranteed for the next decade."
'We are not finished'
Back in January, trade unions were criticised for striking without knowing the full government plans (despite various leaks). With the new executive now in place, unions are vowing to stick to a mobilisation on the 13th of every month, including in March.
"For us as a trade union, we knew what the agenda of the next government was, even when the negotiations were still not finished," Norga said.
Smoke pictured during a national demonstration in Brussels, Monday 13 January 2025. Credit: Belga / Hatim Kaghat
The union chief stressed that Arizona's plans are "really threatening" for ordinary workers.
"We know that it will be an agenda of austerity, where the deficit will be paid just by workers and by the social security system, leaving capital and the bigger companies unhindered, basically."
De Wever has made clear they are unlikely to change the direction of the government, but union bosses will continue to make the case against the long-term impacts of these policies on workers. Despite being voted in last June, the extent of the trade union mobilisation this Thursday shows that the new Belgian Government still faces pushback on key issues.
Since June, ACV Puls has been holding internal talks with all union members, particularly as many will have voted on the right in June’s elections. "We're well aware that even among our members, a lot of them have voted on the right. Otherwise, these results would have been impossible. So there's a lot of work for us there."
