Brussels mayor bans far-right “March on Brussels” scheduled for Sunday 15th
Brussels mayor Philippe Close announced that the Flemish far-right Mars op Brussels”(“March on Brussels”), scheduled for Sunday 15th of September, has not been authorized. The official communication arrived on Friday 13th of September through the mayor’s spokesperson, Maïté Van Rampelbergh. Also, the counter-demonstration organized by some left-wing and anti-fascist groups has been halted.
As Van Rampelbergh stated: “The march has been banned for safety reasons.” In fact, a few days before the police of Brussels Capital and Ixelles area advised against the demonstration.
The main claim of the manifestation was the end of the cordon-sanitaire, the inter-party agreement between N-Va, CD&V, and Open Vld to refuse to collaborate with the far-right party Vlaams Belang (VB). According to the Dutch media, the implication of the Bloed, Bodem-Eer en Trouw group, the Flemish nationalist faction of the international neo-Nazi group Blood & Honour, was suspected.
However, on Sunday the police will still be alert since the arrival of the protesters is not excluded. In fact, notwithstanding the mayor’s veto, after the original one was removed, a new event page on Facebook was created, and it already counts hundreds of people interested in participating.
