Liège Student Protests: Nearly 200 Arrests, March Allowed

Liège police have made 194 arrests since the student mobilisation against education cuts began on 1 October, including 114 minors, while 43 officers have been injured, according to figures released as the city entered its eighth day of unrest on Thursday. The mayor of Liège, Willy Demeyer, has banned public gatherings of more than three people across the city until 16 October, yet a pre-authorized march of several hundred students proceeded calmly toward Liège-Guillemins station mid-morning.

A Week of Escalating Tension

The movement began on 1 October, when pupils blocked about ten schools across Liège province, with police reporting projectile-throwing and damage at several sites. According to La Libre, the protest drew inspiration from a parallel French lycée movement, which had already spread across hundreds of schools in France.

Tension mounted over the following days. On Wednesday 7 October, serious incidents broke out from around 16:45 in central Liège: shops were targeted, windows smashed, fires lit and a vehicle burned. Police were pelted with stones, cobblestones and fireworks. The city sent a BE-Alert message urging shopkeepers to close, and Liège-Guillemins station was temporarily shut while tram traffic in the hypercentre was suspended.

According to the police tally reported by RTBF, 194 arrests have been made since 1 October — 158 administrative and 36 judicial — with 114 of those arrested being minors. The figure rose sharply from Wednesday alone, when 87 people were detained.

The Gathering Ban

In response to the violence, Demeyer (PS) imposed an ordinance effective 6:00 on Thursday 8 October, banning gatherings of more than three people on public roads and in public places across the municipality until 16 October at 23:59. The measure may be repealed early or extended.

“The safety of the people of Liège, of students, of shopkeepers and of all users of the city is at stake,” Demeyer said in a statement announcing the ban.

The ordinance includes a series of exceptions, covering members of the same household; minors accompanied by a parent or other responsible adult; participants in pre-authorized demonstrations; people carrying out professional or public-service duties; police, emergency and health personnel; and people travelling directly to or from school, work, shops or hospitality venues. Violating the ban carries a level 1 penalty, with fines ranging from 200 to 20,000 euros, community work of 20 to 120 hours, probation of 6 to 12 months, or confiscation.

Because the Thursday march toward Guillemins had been authorized before the ban took effect, it was allowed to go ahead. Between 350 and 400 students gathered from about 11:05 at Place du XX Août in front of the University of Liège, mixing higher-education and secondary students. Youth wings of the FGTB and CSC unions gave speeches as a sound system played music, with police standing back. The group then set off calmly toward the station.

Competing Explanations for the Violence

The unrest has triggered a sharp political dispute over who is responsible. Interior Minister Bernard Quintin (MR) blamed an “antifa-type” movement, accusing adults of manipulating minors into delivering violent political messages.

“There are responsibilities at the level of parents in supervising their children — because we’re talking about minors — there are responsibilities at the level of schools … then there is a responsibility of an ‘antifa-type’ movement,” Quintin said, as reported by RTBF. “Adults taking responsibility for manipulating children to carry political messages violently. That is obviously totally unacceptable.”

The Front Antifasciste de Liège rejected the accusation. “I leave the minister to his fantasies and declarations that aim at only one goal: trying to legitimize his anti-democratic, freedom-destroying bill against associations that are only exercising a democratic right to demonstrate,” said Julien Dohet, one of the group’s participants, demanding that Quintin provide evidence.

Mayor Demeyer struck a more cautious note, saying it was “difficult to qualify and precisely categorise the people concerned,” while noting that the average age of those arrested was rising. According to the figures, roughly 70 percent of arrests involved minors earlier in the week, a share that had fallen to about 50 percent by Thursday. The chief of the Liège police force, Jean-Marc Demelenne, said the recent profiles “no longer have anything to do with pupils,” while stressing that no massive influx of non-local demonstrators had been observed.

What the Students Are Demanding

The protests target the budget cuts and reforms of the so-called Arizona coalition (MR, Les Engagés, N-VA, Vooruit, CDV), which governs both federally and in the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, the French-speaking community responsible for education.

Among the most cited grievances is the rise in the university enrolment fee, or minerval, which from 2026 increases by roughly 43 percent on average, ending a freeze in place since 2011. Thomas Pierzchlewicz, administrator of the Comité des Élèves Francophones (CEF), cited courses whose fees had jumped from 200 or 300 euros to as much as 1,200 euros. “How will you explain adding 1,000 euros to students for studies often leading to shortage occupations?” he asked.

Students also point to overcrowded classes and understaffing. “We realise there are 32 of us in Spanish class, that it’s a new language for us and we can’t learn properly,” said Luna, a fifth-year secondary pupil in Liège. “Speaking Spanish in front of 30 people is complicated for me, and I think I’m not the only one.”

Ministerial Response and Reform Refusal

Education Minister Valérie Glatigny (MR) met a delegation of students selected by the CEF and proposed creating a dialogue space within every school to channel student concerns to her cabinet, as RTBF reported. “The idea is to have, systematically during the school day, a place where students can raise their demands, via student councils for example, up to the ministerial level,” she said. “What they above all want is to be listened to.” She is due to present the proposal to the Council of Ministers on Friday.

But the government has given no ground on the substance of the reforms. Youth Minister Valérie Lescrenier (Les Engagés) insisted there was no question of modifying the ongoing changes. “At this stage, we are not touching the reform,” she told RTBF, describing a “difficult budgetary situation that forces us to make choices.”

Beyond Liège

The mobilisation has spread well beyond the Cité ardente. Actions were reported at the Institut Saint-Dominique in Schaerbeek, in Mons, and in Ciney, where a small, peaceful gathering took place. In Liège-Verviers, all LeTec public transport depots were blocked on Thursday morning by a spontaneous strike. Prosecutors said investigations to identify those involved in the disorder would continue for several months, and four adult and two minor suspects were brought before the Liège prosecutor on Thursday.

A national demonstration was planned for Friday 9 October, with youth participation expected to be central. Whether the mayor’s sweeping gathering ban and a promised channel for dialogue can together defuse a movement now entering its second week — and keep frustrated students and opportunistic troublemakers apart — is the central question facing Liège and the wider Belgian education sector in the days ahead.