Close to 100,000 protesters thronged the center of Brussels on Thursday while airports and public transport were largely paralyzed as trade unions took their ire to the streets over drastic plans of the new center-right government to revamp some of the foundations on which the nation's welfare state was built.
Reductions in pensions and cuts for public service personnel were central themes as the country's three main unions joined hands to confront the new government of Prime Minister Bart De Wever, whose program to take on massive government debt includes measures that weigh heavy on the lower-income working classes.
