Belgian students protest in Brussels / Demonstration descends into clashes with police

Several hundred people, mostly young, took part on Saturday in a demonstration in central Brussels, organized amid discontent over rising education costs and university reforms. The protest descended into clashes with law enforcement, which used tear gas and water cannons.

Belgian student groups argue that measures adopted or proposed by the authorities will make higher education less accessible. Numerous participants wore masks and chanted antifascist slogans, while some protesters overturned a car, according to a Reuters witness.

Belgian Interior Minister Bernard Quintin condemned the violence and warned that the authorities would use “all necessary means” to restore order. The official said that the situation in Brussels no longer represented a simple protest.

A similar demonstration also took place in Liege, where students complained about rising education costs and difficult access to study materials in the French-speaking system. The protests in Belgium are part of a broader wave of social unrest in Europe, following demonstrations in France sparked by discontent over education funding, cuts in public spending and the rising cost of living.