Dec 6, 2021: Police in Belgium dispersed crowds using water canon as they protested against restrictions imposed because of the pandemic.

About 8,000 people marched from Brussels to the EU headquarters, shouting “Freedom!” slogans and letting up fireworks.

Protesters were blocked from reaching the roundabout outside the EU headquarters by a barbed-wire barricade and a line of riot officers.

As two drones and a helicopter circled overhead, they threw fireworks and beer cans. Police responded with water cannon and tear gas. As the crowd dispersed into smaller groups around the European quarter, there were more clashes and some set fire to barricades of rubbish.

Several European countries have seen protests in recent weeks as governments respond to increased COVID cases with tougher sanctions.

The administrators of Sunday demonstrations were hoping that they would match the November 21 demonstration, during which the larger rally clashed with police.

Protesters opposed mandatory health measures, such as masks, lockdowns and vaccine passes, and some shared conspiracy theories.

Banners on Sunday compared the stigmatisation of the non-vaccinated to the treatment of Jews forced to wear yellow stars in Nazi Germany.

“That’s all discrimination, so we have to fight it. We don’t want a dictatorship.”

Parents, some of whom brought young children to protest, chanted slogans believing the vaccine would make their young children sick. Uniformed firefighters in uniform marched through the city to protest the denial of vaccinations. The measures taken in Belgium to fight COVID were decided by the country’s own national and regional governments, but the European Union has also attracted skepticism.

Earlier, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that in her view it was time to “think about mandatory vaccination”, a suggestion that was denounced by speakers at the protest.

On Friday, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo announced a series of measures to tighten sanitary rules, bringing school Christmas holidays forward and asking children aged six and over to wear masks.

Approximately 800 people with severe forms of the disease are in intensive care in hospitals across the country, leading to overcrowding and the postponement of treatment for many other conditions.

Protests were also reported in all of Luxembourg, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands during the weekend.

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