Police in Brussels have used tear gas and deployed water cannon against demonstrators taking part in the unions’ National Day of Action.
Demonstrators outside the HQ of the governing Francophone centrist Les Engagés were met by a massive police presence. Police prevented protesters, eager to express their anger with government reforms, from reaching the entrance to the building. Lemons, apples, glass bottles, cobble stones and paint were hurled at the building before police used tear gas to quell the protest and force demonstrators back towards the inner-city orbital ‘Kleine Ring’.
It was a similar story at the HQ of the equally governing Francophone liberals of MR. There the atmosphere turned nasty when riot police, present in large numbers, were the target of firecrackers and glass bottles. They turned water cannon on the protesters.
Several demonstrators have been detained.
