About sixty people were the subject of an administrative arrest, Saturday, after the action of the movement Extinction Rebellion, which had however taken place in peace in the center of Brussels. The demonstrators wanted to take the direction of the rue de la Loi – after having carried out actions at the place de la Bourse, at the rue Neuve and at the Tour des Finances – but were retained by the police, who ended up offering them to choose between leaving the premises or being arrested. The activists had carried out three actions in the afternoon, which had taken place without incident. The demonstration was to end at the foot of the Finance Tower, whose letters composing the word ‘Finance’ on the storefront had been removed earlier in the week in order to replace them with the word ‘Resilience’ on Saturday.
The police, however, did not authorize the affixing of new letters on the facade of the building and prevented the demonstrators from then going to rue de la Loi.
A few dozen activists retained by the police on Boulevard Pacheco ended up having to declare their identity and leave their protest material, then leave. A majority of protesters complied with police orders.
Those who refused to leave – around sixty people – were arrested. They will be able to find freedom during the evening.
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