Around 200 students at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) protested against a controversial conference on campus. ULB has deplored "violence" on campus following the action. Four people were administratively arrested after projectiles were thrown.
The conference was organised by the Jean Gol Centre and took place on Monday evening. It considered the repercussions that Donald Trump's presidential victory will have in Europe and featured speakers from France and Belgium. Among the invited speakers were Georges-Louis Bouchez, leader of the liberal Mouvement Réformateur (MR) party, and Louis Sarkozy, son of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Around 50 student groups took issue with the presence of Bouchez, and Sarkozy, . Both men defended Israel's pager attack on Hezbollah members in September, which killed 12 people including two children and four healthcare workers. Thousands more were injured.
Reacting to the attacks at the time, Sarkozy said "let them die. Israel is doing the work of humanity here." Bouchez called the attack a "stroke of genius."
The student mobilisation opposed their presence. "No fascists on our campus," they stated. "Our university betrays its values by hosting figures who legitimise war crimes and spread hate speech."
The panel also included former Belgian Prime Minister and MEP Elio Di Rupo (PS) and Pierre Wunsch, Governor of the National Bank of Belgium.
'Violence has no place'
The protest was met with a large police presence. Security and police officers "were forced to intervene to ensure the safety of participants," ULB stated in a press release on Monday night.
Police carried out four arrests. "The situation degenerated when projectiles were thrown," a spokesperson told Belga News Agency. "The police then had to intervene, which led to the administrative detention of four people. They have since been released."
The university denounced the use of violence. "While tensions are inevitable in open and honest exchanges, ULB is a place for debate and to form opinions," said Rector Annemie Schaus. "The diversity of the ULB community enriches our university and this inevitably includes confrontations of ideas. We cultivate debate and student life that make ULB a true laboratory of our society."
"Violence has no place at ULB," she added.
Ahead of the protest, Bouchez said students would "be better off studying than talking nonsense". In a social media post, he wrote: "So you are in favour of pluralism but want to ban people who do not think like you."
The organisers also issued a statement on Tuesday 10 December, stating their defence of freedom of expression and democratic debate.
