Brussels budget protest draws thousands as police confront separate group

Thousands of people demonstrated in Brussels, Belgium, on Friday, 9 October 2026, against the federal government’s budget plans, while police used tear gas and water cannon in clashes involving a smaller group near the union march. The action also disrupted travel across the city, affecting people who were not taking part in the protest.

Police estimated attendance at the main demonstration at about 30,000, while the socialist FGTB-ABVV union put it at 50,000. Those are competing estimates, rather than a confirmed count. The march ran from Brussels-Central station toward Brussels-Midi, where it was due to end.

What happened near the Brussels stations

As demonstrators gathered near Central Station, a smaller group confronted police. The Brussels Times reported that people dressed in black threw wooden beams, glass bottles and rubbish bins at officers. Al Jazeera also described objects being thrown near the station. Police used tear gas and a water cannon; Al Jazeera reported baton charges as well.

Police said the main union rally proceeded peacefully and that those responsible for the public-order incidents were not linked to it. That distinction matters when assessing the day’s events: the clashes took place around a large demonstration, but police did not attribute them to the march organisers or its participants as a whole.

How the demonstrations affected travel

Brussels public transport ran a sharply reduced service on Friday, according to The Brussels Times. The operator STIB-MIVB had only metro lines 1 and 5 running in the morning, along with a limited selection of tram and bus routes. Commuters and other passengers faced disruption beyond the streets occupied by the march.

The Brussels Times also reported that Brussels Airport cancelled 140 flights and Brussels Airlines cancelled 40% of its flights to and from the city that Friday. It attributed the cancellations to expected disruption affecting ground handler Alyzia. Those figures describe the reported same-day impact; the available reporting does not establish a final total for the day.

Why Belgium’s unions called the protest

The immediate dispute is over the government’s budget plans. FGTB-ABVV spokesperson Daan Nelen told The Brussels Times the union wanted to draw clear red lines against measures that would hurt household incomes. The publication described Friday’s action as at least the tenth major union day of action against federal government policy.

The socialist FGTB-ABVV organised the main march. The Christian CSC-ACV held separate actions outside the headquarters of governing parties and sought meetings with party officials, The Brussels Times reported. Both unions promoted an alternative budget that they say could raise up to €21 billion without harsh spending cuts. That figure is their proposal, not an independently established amount of revenue.

The dispute has been building for weeks. In September, The Brussels Times reported that FGTB-ABVV opposed unilateral changes to wage indexation, a rise in value-added tax and annualised working time. It said the union had warned it could call a general strike in the week of 23 November if the government crossed those red lines during October budget talks. CSC-ACV had not made the same threat at that point.

The protests show the unions’ opposition as the budget is being drafted, but the reports do not establish that Friday’s action changed the negotiations or what measures the government will ultimately adopt. The turnout remains disputed, and the final number of Brussels arrests has not been established.