Leftist-and-Migrant Alliance Behind Belgium’s “Student” Riots
Several left-wing organizations have been linked to Belgium’s protests. RedFox, the secondary-school youth movement of the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB), distributed stickers among protesters. Education Minister Valérie Glatigny and MR president Georges-Louis Bouchez accused far-left extremists of manipulating students. RedFox denied responsibility for the violence.
Public buildings vandalized, buses set on fire, police pelted with paving stones and fireworks. Officially, Belgium’s unrest is a protest over education. As in France, education is a pretext.
The movement began on October 1 with school blockades in Liège and spread within days to Mons, Charleroi and Brussels. Students say they oppose overcrowded classrooms and a tuition increase in Belgium’s French-speaking Community. Reuters reported that they were inspired in part by the unrest in neighboring France.
On October 6, Liège police reported 31 administrative arrests, two judicial arrests and several injured officers. That same week, Liège prosecutors detained a 13-year-old who had called on social media for others to bring gasoline cans to burn down a school.
The violence escalated in Brussels on October 9 during a national union strike that drew 30,000 marchers, according to police, and 50,000, according to the FGTB union. The march itself was peaceful, but more than a thousand rioters gathered nearby, some carrying Molotov cocktails, sticks and mortars. Police said the violence had no connection to the union march. A police union representative told VRT the rioters were not youths or students but outright scum.
Brussels transit operator STIB reported four vandalized buses, including one completely destroyed, and three trams with smashed windows. Police confirmed that one bus was set on fire. At Brussels-Midi station, glass along an entire bus platform was smashed. More than 100 people were arrested, roughly 80 administratively and 30 judicially.
The riots continued. On October 13, police made at least ten judicial arrests near Brussels-Midi, nine involving minors, and seized fireworks and bottles of flammable liquid. On October 17, an unauthorized gathering turned into riots. A car was flipped onto its roof, and the Socialist Party headquarters was attacked. Interior Minister Bernard Quintin said the violence was no longer a protest.
After the October 9 riots, the social media account Visegrád 24 stated that second- and third-generation migrants had joined forces with Antifa near Brussels Central Station to clash with riot police. Police, prosecutors and the Interior Ministry have not yet released information on the backgrounds of those arrested that day.
Similar descriptions have emerged after earlier unrest. Following the 2026 New Year’s riots, the mayor’s office, citing police reports, stated that the vast majority of perpetrators were young Belgian nationals with a migrant background.