Leader of the Flemish far-right Vlaams Belang party, Tom Van Grieken, was slapped in the face by a police officer as he was trying to attend a demonstration for the healthcare sector in Brussels on Tuesday.
The Brussels police wanted to prevent a small delegation of Vlaams Belang members with banners from standing on the side of the road as the trade union demonstration passed by. During a discussion with the police, Van Grieken was hit in the face by one of the officers.
Vlaams Belang posted a video montage of the skirmishes on Twitter, which shows one of the officers telling the party members that they can only participate in the demonstration without their flyers. In the next shot, Van Grieken asks an officer not to touch their banner (which reads "Care for care").
Heated discussion
While Van Grieken engages in a heated discussion with the officers, one of the officers appears to slap him in the face. The exact cause of the incident is currently unclear as Vlaams Belang and the Brussels police have given different versions of the story.
According to spokesperson for the Brussels-Capital/Ixelles police zone Ilse Van de Keere, the presence of the Vlaams Belang members was leading to unrest among the demonstrators.
Credit: Twitter
"To keep the peace and to avoid further confrontations, our corps leadership decided to separate this group," she said. "This was accompanied by some struggles, followed by pushing and pulling. The exact circumstances of this are still being examined internally."
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According to Van Grieken, the party was targeted by the police. "Since when is a demonstration supporting healthcare a problem in Belgium? Is this what Brussels PS mayor [Philippe] Close understands by democracy?" the party tweeted along with the video.
However, as Vlaams Belang only posted a montage of parts of the incident on social media, it is currently unclear what happened.
