The Mayor of Antwerp Els van Doesburg (Flemish nationalist) has told VRT News that officers from the Federal Police Service will continue to assist the Antwerp Local Police Service in ensuring security in the city’s Jewish Quarter. Speaking on VRT Radio 1’s morning news and current affairs programme ‘De ochtend’, Ms Van Doesburg said that an earlier decision by the Federal Interior Minister Bernard Quintin (Francophone liberal) to withdraw the Federal Police from the Jewish Quarter from 1 January 2026 has been reversed.
On 16 December, it was announced that the federal police officers would be withdrawn from Antwerp’s Jewish Quarter on 1 January. The Jewish Quarter has been considered to be under an increased threat level since 2014.
Mr Quintin's decision did not go down well with Mayor Van Doesburg. “Security in the Jewish Quarter is ensured by federal officers together with officers from the local police service. It is a fifty-fifty split between the federal and local police. Withdrawing the federal police officers will mean that half of the total number of officers deployed will suddenly go”, Ms Van Doesburg said after Mr Quintin had announced that the federal police officers would be withdrawn.
Mr Quintin defended himself by saying that the Federal Police’s assignment in the Jewish Quarter had always only been temporary and that soldiers would soon be able to be deployed for this type of duty thanks to a new law.
Speaking on Thursday morning, Mayor Van Doesburg announced that the federal police officers will remain on duty in the Jewish Quarter after all. “I am very pleased that the Interior Minister has decided that everything will remain as it is until military personnel can be deployed”.