Melike Pala<\/p>\n
March 12, 2026\u2022Update: March 12, 2026<\/p>\n
BRUSSELS<\/p>\n
Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Brussels on Thursday to denounce austerity measures and reforms introduced by the Belgian federal government, disrupting services across the capital.<\/p>\n
The demonstration, organized by multiple trade unions, follows three days of railway disruptions caused by a rail sector strike.<\/p>\n
Demonstrators gathered near Brussels-North Station around 10 a.m. local time (0900 GMT), marching toward Brussels-Midi Station from 11 a.m.<\/p>\n
Protesters called for job security, better working conditions, increased room for labor negotiations and improved pension schemes.<\/p>\n
Major disruptions were reported in public transport and air travel due to the demonstration.<\/p>\n
No passenger flights departed from Brussels Airport, where approximately 42,500 travelers were affected, while Brussels South Charleroi Airport came to a complete standstill.<\/p>\n
Education unions also participated in the national day of action, disrupting classes. Other services, including waste collection, recycling centers and childcare, were also affected.<\/p>\n
Leaders from the Socialist Party (PS) and the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB) joined the protest.<\/p>\n
A confrontation occurred near the US Embassy Brussels at Kunst-Wet, where police used tear gas to disperse a group of \u201cfar-left, anti-fascist activists,\u201d according to broadcaster VRT. The protesters were later pushed back and continued marching.<\/p>\n
Police reported 80,000 participants in the demonstration, while the union ABVV had earlier estimated 100,000.<\/p>\n
Authorities said around 50 people were administratively detained during the protest to maintain order.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melike Pala March 12, 2026\u2022Update: March 12, 2026 BRUSSELS Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Brussels…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[211,210,4412,12996],"class_list":{"0":"post-56738","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brussels","8":"tag-belgium","9":"tag-brussels","10":"tag-protest","11":"tag-strike"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116363963354720005","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}