Mass strikes disrupt transport across Belgium over austerity reforms

Añadido: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Strikes are taking place across Belgium in protest at austerity policies by the federal government. Thousands of people have joined marches. Public transport and air travel have been disrupted. Our correspondent Will Denselow is in Brussels. Will, what's the scale of this disruption?

[00:00:21]Well, for those that use the Schuman metro station, you can see behind me they are the lucky ones. That's because the one in five metro lines are currently operating. They run through this this station. All the other metro lines here in Brussels, the other four, are not operating. So, that gives you a sense of the impact underground here in the Belgian capital. When it comes to above ground, well, major disruptions both for buses and the city's tram network. Uh and exacerbated the traffic chaos caused by, according to police estimates, roughly 40,000 demonstrators taking to the streets earlier today in the Belgian capital here in Brussels.

[00:01:05]Protesters say that that number was considerably higher. Now, when it comes to disruptions in the skies, substantial as well. Charleroi, the country's second largest airport, otherwise known as Brussels South, well, they essentially had to suspend operations because of the travel disruptions. There were also disruptions seen at Zaventem, the main airport here in Belgium with, according to flightaware.com, roughly 20% of flight disruptions. That was exacerbated not by the protest, but by a gas leak on one of the major highways connecting that airport. That brought traffic to a standstill for roughly 90 minutes this morning, which certainly did not help with the traffic chaos here in the country. Will, just tell us a little more about why these um austerity protests are happening.

[00:02:03]Well, these are the this was the 10th planned anti-austerity protest that we've seen in recent months here in Belgium. The last we saw uh back in March. And essentially, the message from protesters is that they're um angry at plans for pension reform, um plans for uh workers' pay, workers' rights as well, these conditions. And really, what we're hearing from a number of protesters during the demonstrations today was they feel that that might be uh cut This might be cost-cutting in the short term, but real concerns uh that these measures would plunge uh plenty of people into poverty in the longer term, especially when it comes to the older generation that rely on these pensions.

[00:02:51]So, there are real concerns uh by uh citizens, and that's why they say that these strike actions will continue. Uh there were leaflets being distributed suggesting that the major next major strike here in Belgium could be planned for June 14th.

[00:03:06]Will, thank you. Our correspondent, Will Denslow, in Brussels.