After France and Spain... the fire of demonstrations and clashes in Brussels

Listen to the article. The audio text is automated, generated by an automated system

Several streets in the Belgian capital, Brussels, turned into an arena for confrontations between police and masked demonstrators, coinciding with a massive march to protest the high cost of living and cuts in government spending.

In the Belgian capital, about 30,000 people participated in the anti-austerity march, according to police estimates.

However, the scene near the central railway station took a different turn, after dozens of demonstrators, most of them young men wearing black clothes and masks, threw stones and fireworks at security personnel.

They then set several fires, including a fire in a pile of public bicycles and electric scooters.

On the other hand, riot police used tear gas, water cannons, and batons to remove them from the area, while the effects of the confrontations extended to traffic and public transportation, which were disrupted throughout the city.

However, the police stressed that the people “who caused disturbances to public order were not linked” to the anti-austerity march, thus separating the protest against government policies from the violence that occurred on its side.

The Brussels confrontations were preceded by days of tension in the city of Liege, where the authorities imposed a ban on public gatherings, following clashes between students and the police and acts of vandalism that affected stores. The unrest resulted in the arrest of more than 200 people and the injury of dozens of security personnel.

The high costs of study, overcrowded classrooms, and difficulty in obtaining educational materials - problems that burden students in the French-speaking education system - were the most prominent reasons for fueling student anger.

Student and union protests in France continue for the third week in a row... Massive marches in Paris and major cities, blocking the entrances to hundreds of schools, and slogans demanding the resignation of President Macron and denouncing police violence https://t.co/bPFoo7ttBQ

Raising university fees for most students from 835 to 1,194 euros also intensified the objections, after adding a new financial burden to the costs of study.

In light of this dissatisfaction, the protests in France gave impetus to student movements in Belgium. Students said that the similarity of their problems with the demands of their French colleagues encouraged them to return to the street

In France, protests began inside schools, with students and teachers demanding the improvement of buildings, the provision of educational personnel, and the easing of overcrowding in classrooms. Then the movement expanded with parents and university students joining, amid criticism of the disparate educational conditions and acts of violence that accompanied some of the movements. In the face of this pressure, the government announced a plan to recruit about three thousand qualified teachers to fill the vacancies. But student unions viewed the move as an initial gain, and pledged to continue the protest.

While 141 schools remained closed today, Friday, the government found itself facing a difficult equation: meeting demands to increase spending on education, while seeking to curb public debt.

In Spain, housing is the cause of anger, with rising rents and the difficulty of finding affordable housing. The protests gained new momentum after the death of Maria del Carmen Abascal, known as "Maricarmen", at the age of 87, two weeks after she was evacuated from her home in Madrid.

From an individual tragedy, her case turned into a symbol of the suffering of tenants, so sit-ins and demands for greater protection from eviction continued. Data from the Idealista real estate website, reported by Associated Press, reveal some of the scale of the crisis. Average rents in Spain have nearly doubled in ten years.

Following her death, thousands of people came out in Madrid on Thursday to honor Abascal and renew their demands to address the housing crisis. She was admitted to the hospital after her evacuation on September 23, but the cause of her death was not announced.

The repercussions of the crisis did not stop in the street, but rather spread to the political scene, with the call for early elections in November, after Parliament rejected government proposals to address it.

As living pressures continue, these protests may find an echo in other European cities, especially when the rising cost of housing and education coincides with a reduction in spending on public services.