Belgium: national demonstration to protect the country’s social security

The FGTB union along with its Flemish equivalent the ABVV called for a demonstration on 28 January in support of balanced funding for country’s social security system and in Brussels, between and 10 and 20 thousand turned out in support of the call. Demonstrators are worried that measures undertaken by previous federal governments, including notably corporate exemptions for social contributions, and ‘flexijobs’, may leave the social security system with a €6.3 billion deficit in 2024, due to a lack of revenues. “This just shows that in the absence of political and social decision-making, our pensions, healthcare repayments, and social allocations risk being cut,” underlined the FGTB that is calling for the future government to totally rethink financing for the social security system. Among the demonstrators were representatives from the socialist mutual insurance bodies, (Ed note: mutual insurance bodies that manage the spending by the primary medical insurance fund), which reminded that health and pensions spending will rise significantly over the next few years as Belgium’s population ages and employment creation stagnates. The message from the demonstration- which was not a call for strike action but which nonetheless did disrupt the transportation system- was aimed at the ‘informers’, i.e. political heads currently tasked with reporting political events to the monarch while the country awaits the formation of a government, a wait that has so far lasted 8 months.