A shooting in the Clémenceau metro station in the Brussels municipality of Anderlecht on Wednesday morning has led to local residents again calling on the authorities to implement urgent measures against drug trafficking.
The shooting occurred at around 06:15 on Wednesday. Images from surveillance cameras now circulating online show two people carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles and brazenly opening fire outside the station.
"Since the 'clean-up' operation in Brussels-Midi, the neighbourhoods around the station have increasingly had to deal with drugs, violence and rubbish," Goedele Desmet of the Triangle 1070 neighbourhood and district association in Anderlecht told Belga News Agency.
"Various neighbourhoods in Anderlecht are places where drug trafficking and violence are rampant, precisely because there is no control," she said. "There are cafés that cover their windows to hide what is going on inside, or hairdressers that are actually involved in completely different shady business."
'Policy of tolerance'
Triangle 1070 is criticising the "policy of tolerance" in the municipality in particular. Because of the lack of action, entire neighbourhoods in the municipality are struggling with litter, drug trafficking and violence.
Meanwhile, Eric Vandezande of the 'Forty Committees' umbrella organisation of Brussels neighbourhood associations also urged the authorities to ramp up their efforts to tackle drug trafficking. "It is shocking that people are walking around with such heavy weapons (a Kalashnikov), early in the morning, when people take the metro to go to work."
This is not just an issue in Anderlecht, but a problem in the entire Brussels-Capital Region, Vandezande said. He blames the outgoing Regional Government. "Since we sounded the alarm in 2023, the Region has done very little to combat drug trafficking and violence."
The scene of a shooting. Credit: Belga / David Pintens
For him, Brussels' drug problem and violence can only be stopped by focusing on a repressive component as well as a social component. While Vandezande is happy that the new Federal Government wants to refinance the local and federal police to scale up the fight against drugs, he fears the federal politicians are clueless about the specific Brussels context.
"The Brussels drug trade and violence are a consequence of a specific precariousness of people in the Brussels area, where tens of thousands of homeless people and asylum seekers survive on the streets," he said.
If the government continues to focus "solely on combating symptoms," the problem in Brussels will never be solved. Vandezande refers to the introduction of a brand new Canal Plan (based on the Canal Plan after the terror attacks in March 2016), among other things. "The Federal Government does not seem to understand the Brussels context well."
The Brussels problem
The situation will therefore only get worse, according to Vandezande, especially as a result of the measures relating to asylum and migration, or the limitation of unemployment over time. "In Brussels, there are people without prospects, which was already a consequence of a failed asylum and migration policy."
"People are being driven towards drugs in Brussels. How do we solve that? That question is not being asked. Too many people are falling by the wayside," he said. "The Brussels problem is essentially social in nature."
Meanwhile, Anderlecht mayor Fabrice Cumps (PS) has repeatedly stated that this drug-related violence in his municipality is an issue that he alone cannot tackle.
Security pictured outside the Delacroix metro station, which was closed off after a shooting this morning. Credit: Belga / James Arthur Gekiere
After the shooting on Wednesday, Cumps reiterated that illegal arms sales must also be curbed. "We must strengthen the controls and checks of arms trafficking and smuggling at our ports and on our roads. This violence is a cancer for our neighbourhoods and municipalities."
For Belgium's new Interior Affairs Minister Bernard Quintin (MR), the shooting took place on his third day on the job, and immediately made the issues for his administration very clear. He promised "zero tolerance" for violence and crime on social media, saying that there is "no place for violence in Brussels and our big cities. This has gone on long enough."
"The shooting is a new wake-up call to start negotiating for a Brussels Government again," he told reporters. "It will not be easy. But at some point, we have to realise that it is necessary for the citizens and residents of Brussels, who voted for cleanliness, mobility and security. They now need a government."
