{"id":226557,"date":"2021-02-01T09:08:53","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T09:08:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=226557"},"modified":"2021-02-03T05:00:44","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T05:00:44","slug":"hundreds-arrested-at-anti-lockdown-demonstration-in-brussels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=226557","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds arrested at anti-lockdown demonstration in Brussels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bjarke Smith-Meyer — Politico Jan 31, 2021<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Police arrested more than 300 people demonstrating in central Brussels on Sunday against measures to curb rising infections of the coronavirus, according to local media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both Bruzz<\/a> and Le Soir<\/a> reported the arrests occurred as police broke up demonstrations around Brussels\u2019 central train station and the Mont des Arts area. No charges have been so far reported.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s crowds were made up of both Dutch- and French-speaking demonstrators, which included Yellow Vest protesters and football supporters, a police spokesman told Bruzz. The demonstration was over by 3 p.m. local time.<\/p>\n

Authorities on Thursday refused the protesters a permit to demonstrate amid concerns that gathering crowds could spread the coronavirus. Demonstration organizer Jos Jr complied with the order, writing<\/a> on Facebook that \u201cthe COVID-19 measures cannot be respected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition, there are too many signs of violent encounters, something I have always disapproved and so resolutely distanced myself from,\u201d he wrote. \u201cHowever, I remain critical of some overly strict measures that mean that certain sectors are still not allowed to reopen with certainty.\u201d<\/p>\n

The police on Sunday reiterated<\/a> the appeal that people should not gather.<\/p>\n

Belgium\u2019s Prime Minister Alexander De Croo last week decided<\/a> to stop all non-essential travel in and out of the country until March 1 to prevent a new spike in infections.<\/p>\n

The travel restriction comes on top of existing measures<\/a> that include a curfew, mandatory teleworking and the closure of restaurants and bars except for takeaways. Some Belgian cities and municipalities have stricter rules in place.<\/p>\n

Austria, the Netherlands and Hungary also witnessed demonstrations in their capitals Sunday against containment measures.<\/p>\n

Reuters reported<\/a> that police in riot gear faced thousands of protesters in Vienna, including a demonstration by the country\u2019s far-right Freedom Party.<\/p>\n

Reuters also reported<\/a>\u00a0that some 30 people in Amsterdam were arrested in the latest round of Dutch demonstrations and police sent around 600 protesters home. Dutch authorities are hoping to avoid a repeat of recent violent protests<\/a>\u00a0that led to looting in several cities across the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

In Budapest, authorities confronted distressed restaurant workers, according to the Associated Press<\/a>. Hungarian workers in the hospitality sector are calling for civil disobedience in response to pandemic restrictions that limit restaurants and cafes to takeout services.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Brussels protest was only one among numerous demonstrations across Europe this weekend against the Covid-19 lockdown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[105,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coronavirus","category-Current_Affairs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=226557"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":226558,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226557\/revisions\/226558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=226557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=226557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=226557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}