Far-Right Leaders Banned from Brussels Municipalities over Public Order Concerns

This visit was widely criticized and led to a police order issued by the mayor of Molenbeek, Catherine Moureaux (PS). The authority prohibited this trip, on Friday, on its territory.

According to her, "the organization of the event is likely to seriously undermine public peace due to its ostentatiously provocative, insulting and discriminatory nature towards the inhabitants of the municipality of Molenbeek-Saint-Jean."

After Molenbeek, the municipalities of Anderlecht, Saint-Josse and Schaerbeek also made the same decision to, they say, prevent a possible relocation of the demonstration to their territory. The two men had announced that they would go to another Brussels municipality.

"Faced with this serious threat to public order, I signed an order this morning prohibiting any form of gathering related to this nauseating project on the territory of Anderlecht," announced Friday the mayor of Anderlecht, Fabrice Cumps (PS).

The mayor of Saint-Josse, Emir Kir, said: "We have been on alert for some time, because we do not want an event whose objective is to divide the population and stigmatize a part of it to parade in our streets and our capital."