The French so-called “student protests” have spread to neighbouring Belgium, and just like in France they have been quickly hijacked by extremist left-wing elements pushing protest into riot.
110 people were arrested in Brussels on Friday after a day of chaos which saw public transport and flights disrupted across the Belgian capital, buildings smashed, and several vehicles burnt out amid running battles between police and dedicated rioters.
As well as a localised expression of the student protests that have gripped France in violent turmoil for weeks, Friday also saw strikes and protests called by trade unions in Brussels. As those two factions met around Brussels Central station, they were joined by “hooded thugs” including black block antifa and others intent on violence, quickly turning the double protest against the government of centre-right Prime Minister Bart de Wever into a riot.
Violent elements clashed with police around Brussels Central station, vandalising vehicles and setting fires. Several busses were burnt out, and bonfires were built out of towers of city short-term rental scheme Ebikes, burning ferociously for their lithium batteries. It is stated the bike company lost as many rental bikes on Friday as it would typically in an entire year.
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – OCTOBER 09 : FGTB national demonstration « Pas dans nos poches ! »against federal government budget measures on October 9, 2026 in Brussels, Belgium, 09/10/2026 ( Photo by Philip Reynaers / Photonews via Getty Images)
Protests against the De Wever government, which is attempting to reduce the Belgian budget deficit — and massive government debt, standing at some 110 per cent of GDP — have been ongoing since he took over Belgium’s notoriously dysfunctional government last year. Indeed, when the bus stops at Brussels’ Central Station were smashed by rioters today, they were only days old, having just been re-instated after they were destroyed during the last round of anti-government riots.
Having dispersed rioters from around the railway station, the Belgian riot police then spent the rest of the afternoon in what was called a giant ‘game’ of cat-and-mouse around the city against highly mobile and violent groups popping up in different neighbourhoods
The police took the position that the violence was unconnected to the student protests themselves and that the day had been hijacked. Indeed, Government minister Bernard Quintin told the Belgian parliament this week “the security services have informed me that the Antifa are infiltrating the student movement and inciting them to violence”, identifying “adults who take it upon themselves to manipulate children to convey political messages in a violent way… [in an] Antifa-like movement”.
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – OCTOBER 09 : FGTB national demonstration « Pas dans nos poches ! »against federal government budget measures on October 9, 2026 in Brussels, Belgium, 09/10/2026 ( Photo by Philip Reynaers / Photonews via Getty Images)
As with the student protests in France, which were seized upon by the hard left as a vehicle for their own revolutionary aspirations and rolled into ethnic grievances, with many protests taking on a distinct character of diverse urban unrest — as observed by U.S. President Donald Trump who called them a manifestation of “out of control mass migration” and aggressive Islamism — many foreign flags were in evidence, among them Palestinian and Congo banners.
The Brussels riots are not the only manifestations of violence in Belgium in recent days. Far-left extremist ‘Antifa’ groups have been active in the city of Liège for a fortnight, again accused of “infiltrating” student protests, with the government claiming the violence there is being bolstered by an influx of non-student outsiders travelling to the city to cause trouble. There were 50 arrests in the city on Wednesday after police officers were pelted with cobblestones, and fires were set.
In Antwerp on Friday, veteran right-wing-nationalist lawmaker Filip Dewinter reported having been assaulted by a party of Moroccans after he was recognised walking through the city on his way to the town hall. Dewinter said he had reported the incident to police and said of conditions in the city: “The Moroccan community feels all-powerful and has turned Antwerp into an occupied and Islamized city… Aggression and violence are part of the intimidation toward everyone who disagrees with that.”
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – OCTOBER 09 : FGTB national demonstration « Pas dans nos poches ! »against federal government budget measures on October 9, 2026 in Brussels, Belgium, 09/10/2026 ( Photo by Philip Reynaers / Photonews via Getty Images)