The riots in Brussels on Sunday, May 4th, are still reverberating around Belgium’s capital, and once again point to the rise of crime and violence in the city.
Hours before the Belgian football cup final on Sunday between Club Brugge and Anderlecht in Brussels, Bruges fans caused havoc in the city, damaging metro trains, smashing shop windows, and intimidating and attacking people in the migrant-majority district of Molenbeek.
Some online videos showed Molenbeek youths fighting back. Violence continued into the night, and, according to the police, sixty-three people were arrested. “After the cup final, the police had to intervene until late into the night to break up fights between Brussels youths and Bruges supporters,” they said.
A football fan suffered a gunshot wound, after being shot at in the downtown Brussels-Midi station, a train station known for being a crime hotspot.
All in all, 80 people had to be treated by emergency services, and nine were taken to hospital.
City of Brussels Mayor Philippe Close called for a lifetime stadium ban and severe legal sanctions for Club Brugge’s “racist football fans” who took part in the violence. “They hate Brussels because it’s a multicultural city,” he told Politico.
The mayor of Anderlecht said Club Brugge supporters should be banned from attending another match against Anderlecht on May 18th but the Mayor of Bruges disagreed, saying that the upcoming match is a different scale from the cup final, and the likelihood of trouble is much lower.
The football riots are symbolic of the wave of violence that has gripped Brussels in recent years, with rival migrant gangs responsible for a lot of the clashes and shootings that have occurred.
“The real victim in this story is the average citizen, who lives in a climate of insecurity and impunity, without being able to do anything about it,” right-wing party Vlaams Belang commented following the latest riots.
