Local police issued 51 tickets in connection with the celebrations marking the election victory of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Genk on Sunday evening, the town's mayor, Wim Dries, announced on Monday.
Dries added that camera footage would be analysed over the next few days to determine whether further fines should be issued.
Many of Erdogan's supporters took to the streets after his re-election was announced, gathering en masse to celebrate the outcome. On the whole, the celebrations went calmly, but two main thoroughfares, Stalenstraat and Europalaan, did see a bit of commotion. Notably, the Europalaan had to be closed to traffic for half an hour until celebrations subsided.
A section of the Stalenstraat was occupied by motorists looking for a thrill. Several supporters and opponents of the Turkish President also came to blows, forcing the police to intervene. 51 reports were drawn up for the incidents in these two streets. Those involved will be interviewed by the police, Dries stated.
This is not in Turkey this is in #Belgium at the municipality of Heusden-Zolder, young Turks celebrating the victory of their president #Erdogan yelling Allahu akbar, Belgian police had to arrest on Turkish person of 21 years old after he wanted to ram with his car into the… pic.twitter.com/LD3XnvWnls
— Sotiri Dimpinoudis (@sotiridi) May 29, 2023
Further to reports of potential aggressions, Dries did not rule out the possibility that the vehicles used for the demonstrations on the public highway might be seized, in addition to fines being issued to the owners: "We're talking about dangerous driving for 30 to 40 people on the Europalaan and for around a hundred on the Stalenstraat."
