Belgian Teachers Call 10-Day Strike Over Austerity Measures

Teachers in French-speaking Belgium have been called to strike from May 18 to 27, threatening widespread disruption to end-of-year exams as educators protest a sweeping austerity package set for a parliamentary vote on the final day of the action. The CSC-Enseignement union issued the strike call on Friday, urging parliamentarians to “finally take into account the anger shaking the education world,” according to Le Soir.

What’s at Stake

The strike targets the décret-programme (decree-program) of the Federation Wallonie-Bruxelles (FWB), which implements €500 million in austerity measures across all sectors by 2029. The FWB parliament is scheduled to vote on the decree in plenary session on May 27 — the very day the strike is set to conclude.

Among the most contested measures are:

• Increased teaching hours: Secondary upper-level teachers (grades 4-6) would see their classroom hours rise from 20 to 22 per week without salary compensation.
• Tightened sick leave: Stricter rules for tenured teachers on medical absence.
• Reduced early retirement: The DPPR early retirement system would shrink from 4 years to 2 years starting in 2027.
• Staff cuts: Approximately 1,701 full-time equivalent detached teaching positions would be eliminated.
• Tuition hikes: Standard university tuition would rise from €835 to €1,194.

Strike Threatens Exams

The 10-day walkout falls directly in the critical end-of-year examination period. In the province of Liège alone, approximately 40 schools are affected, including Athénée Maurice Destenay, Ictia, Waha, Saint-Servais, Saint-Barthélemy, and schools in Verviers, as reported by RTBF.

Some schools have discussed boycotting external exams such as the CE1D (end of second-year secondary) and CESS (end of sixth-year secondary). “Several schools, and not just from the Liège region, had pronounced themselves for boycotting the external exams,” confirmed Johan Van De Plas, a teacher at Athénée Maurice Destenay, in an interview with RTBF. “These are discussions that are currently taking place.”

Emilie Goin, a French teacher at Ictia in Liège, told RTBF the movement was born from “a sense of ultimatum from the government.” She warned the decree “will strongly harm the quality of public education and student supervision,” adding that some schools intend to strike “until the end if the vote is not in favor of education on May 27.”

Government Defends Austerity

Education Minister Valérie Glatigny (MR) acknowledged the discontent but defended the necessity of the measures. “Doing nothing was not an option given the gravity of our budget situation,” she said in a statement reported by RTBF. She thanked teachers “who remain mobilized for their students’ success in this end of year.”

The MR-Les Engagés coalition government has maintained that the austerity is unavoidable due to the FWB’s significant budget deficit. The decree-program has been under examination at the commission level since May 10, with the vote initially scheduled for May 12 before being suspended pending an opinion from the Council of State.

Broader Context and Analysis

The strike is the culmination of months of growing tension between the education sector and the FWB government. A large teachers’ demonstration took place in Brussels on January 25, followed by creative protests including the “Mars Attack” collective and the “Paillasson” (doormat) operation in Liège, where teachers lay on the ground in public spaces to symbolize how they feel treated by the government.

Political scientist and historian Caroline Sägesser criticized the government’s approach, telling RTBF that “there is a problem of method, of all our governments, which no longer inscribe themselves in the Belgian tradition of consultation.” She noted that each hour of teaching requires at least three hours of preparation, arguing the focus on classroom hours obscures the broader workload.

What to Watch For

Several key questions remain unanswered as the strike begins:

1. Will other unions join? The CGSP-Enseignement and SLFP have not yet issued parallel strike calls, but could escalate the movement.
2. What will the Council of State say? Its opinion on the legality of the decree-program could significantly impact the political calculus.
3. Will the government offer concessions? With the strike timed to culminate on the day of the vote, pressure on the MR-Les Engagés coalition is intense.
4. How will students be affected? The potential boycott of CE1D and CESS exams could disrupt graduation timelines for thousands of students across French-speaking Belgium.

The coming days will test whether the government’s fiscal discipline argument can withstand the weight of teacher mobilization — and whether the education system can absorb the disruption without lasting damage to the academic year.