UPDATE: According to the organisers, the protest had previously been notified and authorised by the police.
(Translated from Dutch with DeepL – 6 July BRUZZ) In the Avenue du Port, in front of Thurn & Taxis, 22 demonstrators dressed as zombies were arrested by the police on Saturday. They were on their way to Rue Neuve to protest against the capitalist consumer society. According to the police, the action had not been notified.
The protest was organised by the climate activists of Extinction Rebellion, which is known for its provocative demonstrations. For example, they recently dropped a bucket of red paint in Namur at the entrance to the clothing chain Zara. In doing so, they accused the clothing store of having blood on its hands.
Dance and song
On Saturday, some forty activists of Extinction Rebellion were also planning to denounce the harmful effects of the shopping madness. “We wanted to perform a dance in the Rue Neuve, sing a song and hand out flyers. The intention was to awaken fellow citizens to the destructive power of sales, which are pushing us to buy more and more new clothes and thus push us towards our collective demise.
The date was probably not chosen by chance. Not only had the first weekend of the sales started, also the City Tour started in Brussels. […]
When the first group from Allée du Kaai set course for the city centre around 14.30, a small force of riot police was already waiting for them at Thurn & Taxis.
22 arrests
[…]A total of 22 people were arrested because they took part in an unauthorised protest. The 22 activists were taken to the police station of Etterbeek, which they were allowed to leave after about five hours. The police also confiscated buckets of counterfeit blood, protest signs, flags, cameras and other accessories. […]