The Brussels municipal council on Tuesday unanimously approved a motion declaring the Belgian capital an “anti-fascist city."
The motion, originally tabled by Ecolo-Groen, was warmly endorsed by the coalition of socialist, liberal, and Christian Democratic aldermen before being put to a vote.
With this declaration, Brussels aims to highlight its historical stance against fascism and reaffirm this commitment for the future, the councillors stressed.
“Far-right ideologies are very much alive today,” Zoubida Jellab, an Ecolo-Groen council member and author of the motion, noted, citing examples from the United States under Donald Trump and various European countries.
Brussels stands against all forms of hate, fascism, far-right extremism, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia, Jellab stressed.
Mayor Philippe Close stressed the motion’s significance and urged council members to vote unanimously. “As the capital of Europe, we are somewhat in resistance today,” he remarked.
The mayor recalled that the Brussels city council was once much more right-leaning, and highlighted the fact that no fascist candidates has been elected to it in the past two decades.
Close expressed pride in the current council, “made up of people from all walks of life.”
