Belgian police protests: What you should know

Heading to Brussels Airport or into the EU Quarter this week? Then a seemingly innocuous meeting between unions and a government minister could have a big impact on your plans.

For the past two weeks, police across Belgium have been protesting, unhappy at what they say are low wages and uncertainty about pension schemes. On Monday — a day after a mass police presence in the capital during a protest against coronavirus measures that turned violent — Brussels police staged their own demonstration, disrupting rush-hour traffic along the busy Rue de la Loi and other roads in the EU Quarter and causing some 200 travelers to miss their flights at the airport.

Unions are now urging Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden to increase resources for police forces, and the two sides will sit down again on Tuesday afternoon.

Here are the issues and what’s at stake:

What are the protests about?

It all comes down to money. Police wages have not been revised since a 2001 reform, and unions have long called for an improvement in the working conditions of officers. After negotiations with Verlinden last spring, the government proposed a slight increase in net salaries, pending the annual budget discussions, which were due to take place in the fall.

But in October, after the annual budget negotiations, the government backtracked on the proposition as “additional resources could not be made available to meet their requests,” Verlinden said.

On top of that, the government wants to phase out early retirement for officers. Vincent Gilles, head of the union SLFP Police, said a plan to scrap early retirement by 2023 “was more than a shock, it was a punch in the face.”

Why is there no solution yet?

This is not the first time Belgian police unions have protested about their compensation. But the scale of the action by officers is greater this time.

Verlinden says she’s trying to sort out a longstanding problem. The unions, however, have criticized her inexperience — she left her job at a law firm in 2020 to become part of the Belgian government, her first role in public office.

The minister hoped local authorities would help out as three out of four Belgian police officers officially work for local government, and they have been struggling financially in recent years. According to Nathalie Debast, spokesperson for local authorities in Flanders, local authorities will only turn their attention to new budgets at the end of 2024.

Will there be more protests?

Yes. Liège and Namur will be the target of police demonstrations on Tuesday.

What happens next in Brussels depends on the outcome of Tuesday’s meeting between Verlinden and the unions. If the negotiations fail, police unions have threatened a series of demonstrations through to January 31, without giving details.

“We do not wish to communicate further due to union strategy,” said Raoul Moulin of the CSC union. He added that he was “rather pessimistic” about the outcome of the negotiations: “There needs to be a broader discussion about the budget” for police and not just a focus on salary increases, Moulin said.

However, Gilles from the SLFP Police union said he noticed a change in the interior minister’s tone in their meeting on Monday. “She was much more affable, listening to what the different speakers were saying. As a result, we have the feeling that Tuesday’s meeting will finally be productive and finally constructive,” he said.

Verlinden has always indicated she wants to continue negotiations, but preferably “without smoking bombs in the background.” A spokesperson for Verlinden did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.

The lack of certainty is a problem for Brussels Airport. “The last time a similar case happened, we heard of it the day before,” said airport spokesperson Ihsane Chioua Lekhli. Travelers will be notified of any action through the airport’s website.

Is this legal?

Police officers are allowed to go on strike in Belgium, but the action they can take is limited, said Jelle Janssens, a criminology professor at Ghent University. They have to respect two conditions: they must notify the interior minister of their intention to strike, and not all officers can take action at the same time. The penalties for not obeying these conditions could be as high as an €80,000 fine and a one-month jail sentence, Janssens said.

“As long as it’s organized, they won’t cross that thin blue line … between what’s legal and illegal,” Janssens said.

What is the political fallout?

The protests are rapidly becoming a test case for Verlinden, who was seen as a fresh face intended to boost her flagging Flemish Christian Democrats. She’s already faced a major challenge while in office, dealing with the deadly flooding in parts of the country earlier this year.

Her relationship with police unions had a bumpy start.

“We had a very bad relationship with the interior minister right from the outset,” said Gilles. He described her as “not equipped for a political approach to problems” before adding that her tone was different during Monday’s meeting.

Police unions had previously asked for Prime Minister Alexander De Croo to get involved in the talks. On Sunday, De Croo criticized the union’s actions, saying they were “making life impossible for people who want to go to work” and going “too far.” He indicated he has faith in Verlinden to continue the negotiations.

Gilles said he saw this as a sign that a deal might be forthcoming. “De Croo mentioned an upcoming official meeting Tuesday to address the issue. As a result, he put his minister under an obligation of [getting a] result and the impossibility of failure.”