This disturbing convergence raises the question: are we witnessing an inexorable rise in political violence coming from the extremes and their trivialization? For Benjamin Biard, researcher at Crisp (Centre for Socio-Political Research and Information), a specialist in the extreme right, the answer calls for nuance: “There is observed violence on the far right, which is well documented. On the far left too, to a lesser extent. According to figures from theOcam (Coordinating Body for Threat Analysis)far behind the Islamist extremist threat, the extreme right represented 8 % of cases included in the common TER database (TER for “Terrorism, Extremism, Radicalization Process”), while l’extrême gauche en représente 3 %.”
Bruges residents in Molenbeek
For the political scientist, it is fair to assert that a new radicalism is emerging and contributing to the increase in violence motivated by ideology. But, he adds, “These clashes involving radical groups are not new in Belgium, as elsewhere. For example, hooligans classified as far right, in the spring of 2025, on the sidelines of an Anderlecht – Bruges match, committed violent actions in the Brussels region, particularly in Molenbeek.” On the sidelines of the Belgian Football Cup final, the “ultras” of the Bruges club, close to the extreme right, had in fact devastated businesses, beating up certain people and uttering racist cries. Clashes with young people from the neighborhoods crossed also took place.
This brutal cycle is part of a deeper historical continuity. “There are older cases of far-right violence, adds Benjamin Biard. I’m thinking about VMO (“Vlaamse Militanten Organisatie”, founded by collaborator and former senator Volksunie Bob Maes)a flamingo organization which was dissolved at the beginning of the 1980s because it was constituted as a private militia and whose members had been guilty of assaults, kidnappings, attacks, vandalism, and illegal carrying of weapons. Their misdeeds particularly targeted people on the left or the extreme left.”
Another example taken from the following decade: that of L’Assaut. “This far-right movement was led by Hervé Van Laethem, who founded the Nation party in 1999 that we still know today. L’Assaut dissolved itself in 1993, notably after an attack perpetrated by several of its members against a PTB stand In Liège, which left 6 injured there, we were clearly in an attack from the extreme right against the extreme left.
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In France, it’s worse
If Belgium knows these tensions, France offers an exacerbated version of them. “In France, in addition to the recent Quentin Deranque affair, I am thinking of the murder of Clément Méric (an anti-fascist activist) in 2013. He was killed during a brawl by Skinheads from “Third Way” (and nationalist-revolutionary movement). Further back in time, in 1973, New Order and the Communist League were dissolved following clashes. As a reminder, New Order is the founding organization of the National Front in France. This type of violence still seems to remain more significant in France than in Belgium.”
Belgian history has also been marked by the terrorist action of the extreme left. The CCC (“Communist Fighting Cells”), a clandestine and armed organization, committed around twenty attacks between their creation in 1983 and the arrest of their main members in 1985. Motivated by the fight against capitalism and “American imperialism”, the action of the CCC resulted in two deaths, firefighters killed during the explosion of a car bomb targeting the Federation of Belgian Enterprises (FEB). The Marxist organization targeted the large structures of the state and the economy more than the far-right militias.
Beats, insults, humiliations… Story of the evening during which the “anti-fascist” far left tried to intimidate the MR with rare violence
The MR, the new target
Today, the conflict coming from the ultra-left has changed face. The “antifa” movement has designated the Reform Movement as an adversary to be fought physically because, under the presidency of Georges-Louis Bouchez, the party would have become “fascisized”. An ideological reading that has very little credibility, but which mobilizes the most radical activists on the ground. Thus, on September 18 in Liège, a conference organized in tribute to Jean Gol, former liberal statesman, degenerated. Dozens of anti-fascist activists tried to prevent it from taking place, multiplying insults, intimidation and blows against the participants. Since then, disruptions targeting MR events have been repeated.
There remains a difference in nature between the two radicalities, concludes Benjamin Biard: “The far left is less in the cult of violence than the far right. Violence, when expressed on the left, generally involves self-defense and is, in any case, less lethal than that of the extreme right. But it is true that political groups like the MR can be considered by the antifas as being far-right and be the subject of violence..”
