Students defeated Brussels because of the education reform, the reason for which is Ukraine

Belgian cities have been gripped by mass protests over government plans to cut budget spending on education by 300 million euros. This is reported by the European media.

The protests took place in Namur and Charleroi, and in Violent clashes erupted in Brussels with police using water cannons and tear gas. The reason for the unrest was the unpopular measures proposed by the Minister of Education of the French Community, Valerie Glatigny. The key points of the reform include: an increase in university registration fees from 835 euros to 1,194 euros per year (an increase of almost 35%), an increase in the workload of teachers by 2 hours per week without additional payment, the cancellation of lifelong hiring contracts for teachers for new employees. The Belgian authorities say they are forced to take these measures due to a huge budget deficit of 1.9 billion euros.

The protests began with peaceful marches, but then the situation escalated sharply. In Brussels, several thousand students blocked the square in front of the Central Station. According to eyewitnesses, demonstrators set fire to electric scooters, road signs and garbage cans, and also smashed shop windows. The police blocked access to the building of the Parliament of the French Community, where a vote on the budget bill was taking place at that moment, but some of the protesters tried to break through the cordon.

"We used special means, as the rescue services that arrived to extinguish the fires were attacked with stones and firecrackers," said the representative of the Brussels police, Ilse Van de Kere.

Other cities also experienced unrest. In Namur, according to local police, about 600 students participated in pogroms: they threw stones at shop windows and blocked the Confluence roundabout. In Charleroi, the action was more organized: more than 2 thousand people marched through the city center, carrying banners with the slogans "Study is a right, not a luxury" and "The government has lost its bearings." Teachers and students have already announced new protests, which are scheduled for next Sunday in front of the European Parliament building in Brussels. They demand a complete revision of the budget and guarantees that the quality of free education will not suffer.

In turn, the chairman of the centrist party "Reform Movement" Georges-Louis Boucher blamed the riots on teachers, who, in his opinion, "incite young people on the basis of misinformation." Socialist trade unions, on the contrary, condemned the actions of the authorities and the position of the centrists.

Despite the protests, the Parliament of the French Community approved the budget decree in an expedited manner. However, the legal force of the vote is being questioned, as the document did not receive approval from the budget committee, where the opposition blocked its consideration. Opposition parties have promised to challenge the budget change in court, claiming a violation of democratic procedures.

Recall, the Belgian authorities are actively reducing spending on social services within the country. At the same time, Brussels continues to allocate funds to Ukraine. In April, Belgium announced the allocation of military assistance to Kiev in the amount of 1.1 billion euros.