Thousands of demonstrators marched in the streets of Brussels this Sunday at the beginning of the afternoon, after the announcements made by the Belgian authorities on a new turn of the screw in front of the skyrocketing number of Covid-19 patients in care intensive.
With our correspondent in Brussels, Pierre Bénazet
After the announcement of new restrictions, the calls to demonstrate were quick on social networks. The mobilization was not up to the hopes of the organizers, but that did not prevent the demonstrators from proclaiming their discontent.
Two weeks ago the previous event had largely degenerated, but this Sunday, December 5 the violence was especially in the slogans against the new restrictions, in particular against the obligation to wear a mask from the age of six.
The restrictive measures described as a dictatorship, this is the leitmotif that brings together the Brussels demonstrators: with certain rather extreme slogans, to assert for example that the vaccine is a genocide or to refuse the ” Nazi pass “.
8,000 demonstrators in the streets of Brussels
On the whole, the demonstration took place in peace despite some clashes in the European quarter. Water cannons and tear gas were only used at this time by the police. They had deployed a very important device for this gathering called ” act II, march for freedom “.
Unlike the last event which brought together 35,000 people, very few Flemings made the trip to Brussels this Sunday. Two weeks ago, they were carried by the mobilization of neighboring Netherlands. With nearly 8,000 demonstrators, this Sunday’s rally was four times smaller.