After three weeks of turmoil, Belgium still limped along in semiparalysis. Day after day, grim-faced leaders trooped into Laeken Palace to confer earnestly with the young King. Just as regularly, the long, winding procession of strikers set off from the Socialists' headquarters in Brussels' Maison du Peuple to march through the streets in continued protest at the government's economic austerity program. The big steel plants around Liegè, Mons and Charleroi remained dark and empty. In the southern Walloon country, angry strikers set up roadblocks when the gendarmes were not around, hurled four-pronged nails on the roads to discourage profiteering...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
