Police in the Belgian capital Brussels had to use water cannons to disperse a crowd defying a ban on a gathering of controversial far-right figures including the controversial Frenchman Dieudonné M'bala M'bala which critics called an "anti-Semitic hatefest".
Citing a threat to public order, the mayor of the Brussels municipality of Anderlecht banned both the meeting and any protests connected to it. However, organizers of the European Dissidents' Congress - a Brussels bookshop and a group called 'Debout les Belges!' (Belgians, Rise up!) - urged supporters to head to the venue for "a surprise", sparking the standoff with riot police.
"It's over. Everyone should disperse calmly," said Laurent Louis, a 34-year-old far-right lawmaker, outspoken anti-Semite and founder of 'Debout les Belges' (pictured), after police forcefully broke up the crowd of about 500 protesters without making arrests. "They are coming down on us, I don't want anybody injured," Louis told the crowd, though about 40 supporters remained outside the venue later.
The event was to bring together a string of far-right figures, including the comedian Dieudonné M'bala M'bala, who has faced repeated accusations of anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial and incitement to racial hatred.
M'bala M'bala, a controversial French comedian, shot to international notoriety when footballer Nicolas Anelka performed the comic's Nazi salute-style 'quennelle' gesture during a match in Britain. The 'quenelle', a stiff armed pose, is defended by its users, including event organizer Louis, as an "anti-establishment" gesture but critics see it as a disguised Nazi salute. It is regularly used by a wide range of anti-Semitic groups, including neo-Nazis and Islamists, who often post pictures online of themselves performing the gesture outside Jewish venues or at Holocaust memorials.
Louis had kept the venue a secret until the last moment to prevent it from being closed down. The organizers immediately challenged the ban before Belgium's Conseil d'Etat, which issued a fast-track ruling confirming the ban, and around 200 supporters and critics of the event had rallied in Anderlecht early Sunday afternoon, many of them performing the 'quenelle'.
Maurice Sosnowski, president of the Belgian Jewish umbrella organization CCOJB, welcomed the ban on the gathering, saying that all invited speakers were well-known anti-Semites.
