Staff from the Public Centres for Social Welfare (CPAS) braved the rain on Thursday morning to express their anger over the De Wever reforms on limiting unemployment benefits to two years.
Hundreds gathered at the Albertine Square in central Brussels, by Mont des Arts, where the march set off shortly after 11:00.
"Hands off social security. It’s the workers’ treasure. We’re made to believe it’s public money we’re using, but that’s false; it’s the workers’ money," declared Yves Martens from the Solidarity Collective against Exclusion.
"Cutting unemployment benefits won’t help anyone find a job; it will only create misery. The CPAS must remain a last-resort safety net, and there should not be more people at CPAS than unemployed. It’s not about negotiating a few million more or less for CPAS, it won’t suffice," he proclaimed through his loudspeaker as the protest began.
The Arizona government measure will affect more than 100,000 people, who will be excluded from unemployment benefits from January 2026.
According to the Employment Minister David Clarinval (MR), by 2028 some 320,000 job seekers will no longer receive unemployment benefits. This shock measure is causing concern and incomprehension among those affected, says the Belgian League of Human Rights in a statement.
Demonstration as part of the national day of action by the CPAS/OCMW in reaction to the reform of long-term unemployment benefits and its impact on the CPAS/OCMW, in Brussels on Thursday 24 April 2025. Credit: Belga / Tristan Jansens
Chanting "Down with, down with Arizona" and accompanied by drumbeats, the demonstrators marched to the headquarters of the National Employment Office on the Boulevard de l’Empereur.
"We’re here, even if Bouchez doesn’t want us, we’re here," the protesters chanted in chorus.
According to Séverine de Laveleye, President of the CPAS in Forest, the reform will cost her branch €3,767,386 in equity capital.
"Where are we going to find that? If the municipalities have to make up the shortfall, it will necessarily be at the expense of other basic public services."
Furthermore, supporting job seekers is not their primary mission. Excluding the long-term unemployed from the insurance system and moving them onto a welfare system is not a "historic" act of courage, she continues, but rather an admission of failure and, above all, an abdication of responsibility by public authorities.
"We would like to point out that the growing impoverishment of Brussels residents is a structural, even political, problem, not an individual one," de Laveleye added.
At the beginning of the week, the united trade union front called for a "national day of action for CPAS," involving strikes and a demonstration in Brussels on Thursday. Concurrently, an action day was held in the Walloon CPAS.
Activists are concerned about the impact of Arizona’s measures on the already "overburdened" CPAS staff and their beneficiaries, who are often "complex and vulnerable" profiles.
