Nick Roskams, Belgian ESFL Board member and Vice-President of LVSV Leuven, wrote a letter in reply to Rudy de Leeuw, the leader of the National Belgian Socialist Union, that has caused an intellectual riot in Belgium. It has been “liked” by 12,000 students from all across the political spectrum, and been picked up by media outlets across the country.

As in most European countries, the current financial and public debt crisis is a hot topic in Belgium, and is starting to profoundly influence public debate. The newly formed Belgian government recently decided to go through with a pension reform plan that, amongst other things, increases the retirement age. This is just part of a larger plan to make the social security system more sustainable and reduce the growing public debt by implementing various austerity measures. According to the government, this decision was necessary to ensure that our generation would not fall victim to the current system. Trade unions went on strike this past December to protest the plan, and called for a national strike today that will hold the country in deadlock.

Remarkably, increasingly large numbers of young people from all across the political spectrum are speaking out against the behavior of the unions, and their unwillingness to contribute to solving Belgium’s problems. The unions are being heavily criticized for rigidly clinging to the existing, and untenable, social security system. At first the unions shrugged off their critics by paternalistically claiming that students were being shortsighted and sultry because public transport, which has a huge impact on the mobility of young people in Belgium, is going on strike as well. However, criticism of the unions continues to grow and young people are using Twitter and Facebook to demand that the older generation take responsibility to reduce the debt that will eventually end up falling on our generation. Young people are protesting more and more because they fear that they will become double victims of the current unsustainable system. If the system remains unchanged it could easily collapse in 10 to 20 years and leave payers of some of the highest taxes in the world without any of their promised social benefits. Additionally, our generation would inherit a huge public debt, which is reaching a whopping 100% of GDP and continually increasing. LVSV (Flemish Classical-Liberal Student Association) board members from across Flanders have been helping to lead this student movement by setting up highly supported Facebook groups against the national strike.

President of the Socialist Union (ABVV), Rudy de Leeuw, tried to respond to this increasing hostility by campaigning on Twitter using the hashtag “#30J” (referring to the date of the strike). The plan backfired almost immediately. The hashtag was picked up by his critics and trended on a global scale because of the flood of students’ angry reactions against the unions. Mr. de Leeuw attempted a charm offensive and wrote a letter addressed to students that paternalistically claims that the Socialist Union is concerned for their future and is trying to defend their rights against “neoliberal austerity measures”. It stated that their fight was just as much ours. Many feel that the letter failed to address students’ concerns and merely claims that students are incapable of seeing the importance of the unions’ actions.

Outraged by the arrogance of the unions, Nick Roskams wrote a lengthy reply to Mr. De Leeuw’s letter, pointing out that the unions have become powerful institutions with vested interests that cannot claim to represent students, who are the victims of a rigid labor market and an untenable tax and social system. It made some very ad rem suggestions that the unions should return to their original principles and work on a more voluntary basis to provide social security for their members. Nick posted his letter on Facebook Wednesday morning and asked people who agreed with its message to “like” the letter. The letter was spread and shared on Facebook by LVSV members hoping to spark some interesting discussion. Everyone was caught off guard and completely baffled by the results. After being online for only 5 hours, more than 2,500 students had “liked” the letter, with the number of “likes” swelling exponentially. The number has now increased to a mind-blowing 12,000 “likes”, representing 0.19% of the Flemish population, and is still growing. The letter has become the talk of the town not only on Facebook and Twitter, but also in the media (Knack.be, DeMorgan.be, and Standaard.be). Nick was also interviewed on the radio and national television, appeared on a widely watched debate program of the Flemish broadcasting company this Sunday, and sat down with the trade unions and their employers.

The letter set off a chain reaction: LVSV members all across the country are taking action, despite being in the middle of exams. Dimitri Van den Meersche, a member of LVSV Ghent, has been invited to discuss the future of the unions and the Belgian social system in a panel debate involving some of Belgium’s most eminent public intellectuals; Mattias de Vuyst, another LVSV Ghent member who started a popular anti-strike page, has been invited by the unions themselves to discuss the whole affair in an informal setting. A shorter pamphlet based on Nick’s letter was made and signed by prominent past board members of LVSV and gained wide support from other political youth organizations. The pamphlet will be spread amongst citizens and strikers today to encourage further discussion and awareness. For example, LVSV Antwerp has pledged to print a thousand copies of the pamphlet and make them available in Antwerp’s main train station, where they expect strikers to be posted. It is becoming such a huge phenomenon that the unions can no longer evade a sincere discussion about the legitimacy of their actions, and it has ignited a debate that is influenced by more classical liberal ideas.

It is encouraging that growing numbers of young people are no longer buying the unions’ false promises and are rejecting the unions’ arrogant claims that they have an inherent right to speak on behalf of all Belgians. It also indicates that libertarians need not crawl into their ideological corner. We are perfectly capable of influencing public debate by taking a stand on important issues, and perhaps even winning widespread public support. This week has truly been a victory for libertarians in Belgium. Our message is spreading like wildfire and forcing the unions to think twice before they ever claim to represent all of us again.

This post was written by Gilles Verstraeten. Gilles is studying Law at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and a board member of LVSV Leuven.