“Together, we can stop the pension reform by the De Wever-Rousseau government,” declared Raoul Hedebouw, leader of the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PVDA), during his speech on Saturday at ManiFiesta, the annual festival of the far-left party.
Hedebouw described the Federal Government’s proposals as “pure pension theft,” repeatedly referring to it as the De Wever-Rousseau government.
He shared the story of Mieke, a domestic worker from Vilvoorde, who, after a lifetime of hard work, risks losing €300 from an already modest pension.
“They want to force everyone to work until the age of 67, without a single specific measure for those with physically demanding jobs. They want to steal our best years. We won’t let that happen,” said Hedebouw. He argued that Belgium’s pensions are already among the lowest in Europe.
“And now De Wever and Rousseau want to lower our pensions even further. We will not let this pension theft go unchallenged,” he added.
Hedebouw reserved sharp criticism for politicians, singling out Georges-Louis Bouchez, leader of the Francophone liberal MR party, as the “champion of lying politicians.” He also called out Conner Rousseau, the leader of the Flemish socialist party Vooruit, for labelling Belgian pensions as “the most generous in Europe” in an interview with Humo.
“The most generous pensions in the world? In what world does Conner Rousseau live to dare say something like that?” he asked.
According to Hedebouw, Belgium’s pensions are “perfectly affordable” and depend on political priorities. “For F-35 fighter jets and military expenses, the De Wever-Rousseau government finds €34 billion. But for our pensions, they claim there’s no money? It’s time to reverse that logic,” he argued.
He called on people to join the national trade union demonstration in Brussels on 14 October. “Nothing has been finalised yet. Together, we can stop the pension reform by De Wever and Rousseau and demand an entirely different policy,” he concluded.
