Riot police fired water cannons to disperse several hundred far-right demonstrators who violently invaded a square in Brussels that has become a memorial to the victims of last week’s terror attacks. Authorities had asked organizers to postpone a planned “March Against Fear” in Brussels. Still, hundreds gathered for a peaceful show of solidarity with the victims. That is until a group of right-wing nationalists, many of whom had their faces partially or completely covered, aggressively entered the square carrying an anti–Islamic State banner and trampled parts of the memorial.
The black-clad men chanted anti-immigrant and Nazi slogans, confronted ethnic minorities who were at the shrine, and started giving Nazi salutes. As people who had gathered to light candles at the memorial shouted, “No to hatred,” the right-wing nationalists shouted back, “This is our home.” Ten people were arrested.
Brussels Mayor Yvan Mayeur did not hide his disgust calling the fascist protesters “scoundrels.” “The police were not deployed to protect people from these hooligans but a whole other threat,” said Mayeur. Public broadcaster RTBF said there were as many as 1,000 hooligans who joined the anti-immigrant protest, while the Guardian puts the number of protesters at about 200.
Adam Liston, told the BBC that there had been a “really positive atmosphere” in the square earlier in the day when it had been filled by people paying tribute to the victims. “Then a bunch of skinheads just turned up, marched into the square, and started a major confrontation with the peace protesters,” he said. “They got in the face of the protesters and police. They set off flares and chanted and it was getting quite ugly.”