The Belgian city of Liège has banned unauthorized public gatherings of more than three people following a week of violent ‘student’ protests that have mirrored the riots sweeping neighbouring France. The emergency order, imposed by Socialist mayor Willy Demeyer, took effect on Thursday, 8 October, and will remain in force until 16 October, as authorities struggle to contain arson, vandalism and attacks on police.
By Thursday morning, Liège police had recorded 194 arrests, including 114 minors, and 43 injured officers since the unrest began on 1 October. Of those detained, 158 were administrative arrests and 36 were criminal arrests.
The protests have followed a remarkably similar trajectory to those garnering significant international attention in France. Initially organized around secondary schools, demonstrations against education reforms quickly escalated into street violence as masked groups moved into commercial districts, set fire to blockades and attacked police. In Liège, the first protests began on 1–2 October before intensifying dramatically earlier this week.
On Wednesday, 7 October, rioters torched rubbish bins and electric scooters, smashed shop windows and targeted businesses around Place Saint-Lambert and Place de la République française, two prominent commercial districts in the city. Authorities temporarily closed Liège-Guillemins railway station and warned businesses to shut their doors. Thursday was comparatively calmer under heavy police deployment, although another 76 arrests were reported.
The initial grievances concern education reforms introduced by the centre-right MR–Les Engagés government of Belgium’s French-speaking Community, including changes to teachers’ workloads, education funding and higher university fees. But as in France, the movement has expanded beyond its original educational demands, attracting far-left organizations and groups whom authorities say have little connection to the schools involved.
‘Belgian Interior Minister Bernard Quintin went further on Thursday, declaring that Antifa had infiltrated the demonstrations’
The involvement of the communist Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB), for example, has sparked controversy similar to that surrounding the role of Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the far-left France Unbowed (LFI) in the French riots. RTL footage showed demonstrators carrying campaign material from RedFox, the party’s secondary-school youth organization. MR chairman Georges-Louis Bouchez accused the PTB of manipulating students and suggested sending the bill for the destruction to party leader Raoul Hedebouw. The PTB rejects accusations of responsibility for the violence.
Belgian Interior Minister Bernard Quintin went further on Thursday, declaring that Antifa had infiltrated the demonstrations. ‘Adults are manipulating children to convey violent political messages,’ he said.
The crisis has also produced a remarkable contradiction within Belgium’s left: Socialist mayor Demeyer has imposed emergency restrictions on a movement openly supported by politicians from his own party at the national level. On Wednesday, Socialist parliamentarian Christie Morreale accused the government of introducing measures that students perceived as ‘unjust and violent’, while PTB deputy Amandine Pavet attacked military expenditure at the expense of education.
Meanwhile, far-left collective Bruxelles Dévie condemned Demeyer’s restrictions as authoritarian, accusing the Socialist mayor of suppressing student mobilization. Its statement argued that a government choosing to restrict young protesters rather than listen to them was becoming ‘increasingly fascistic’.
The demographic composition of the riots is also very similar to that of the French unrest. Liège is located in Wallonia, where approximately 37 per cent of residents are foreign nationals or Belgian citizens of foreign origin. In Liège municipality itself, the proportion reached 57.7 per cent in 2025, comprising 36.9 per cent Belgian citizens of foreign origin and 20.8 per cent foreign nationals.
‘The riots in France have already inspired similar actions elsewhere in Europe, particularly in Italy and Greece’
The riots in France have already inspired similar actions elsewhere in Europe, particularly in Italy and Greece. In Turin and Rome, radical-left student collectives have occupied schools under the slogan ‘Let’s do as in France’, while other groups organized demonstrations in Bologna. One of the stated reasons behind the mobilization is opposition to the Meloni government’s new school rules, which prohibit burkas and other face coverings and limit the number of foreign-background students in individual classes. These protests, however, have not escalated into the same level of violence seen in France or Belgium.
Similarly, in Greece, the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE) openly endorsed the French protests and called for nationwide student mobilization on 8 October, with school walkouts, occupations and demonstrations reported in Athens, Patras and other cities.