Brussels (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – On March 8, 2025, in Brussels, 5,000 joined a Women’s Day march. La Capitale reports that MR members, including Magali Cornelissen, were attacked. Georges-Louis Bouchez condemned the violence, calling it a threat to democracy.
On International Women’s Day, a march in Brussels got heated when members of the French-speaking liberal party, Mouvement Réformateur (MR), joined the demonstration. The march started at 3:00 PM from Albertinaplein and had about 5,000 people. They were there to talk about women’s rights, equal pay, and good public services. But some protesters didn’t like the MR.
La Capitale reports that some protesters mentioned that the MR is racist and not feminist. They booed the MR members, yelled at them to leave, threw water on them, and tried to scare them. Things got worse, and some MR members were even injured. A former city council member, Magali Cornelissen, is being pushed to the ground.
Why did clashes erupt with MR at the Brussels women’s march?
According to the officials, the march kept going, with people talking about things like violence against women, fair pay, and helping women around the world. The march was organized by many different groups who care about women’s rights. They wanted to show how hard it is for women in Belgium and other countries.
Some people mentioned that the MR’s ideas about immigration and fairness don’t match what the march was about. According to the officials people in Belgium don’t agree on who is on their side when it comes to women’s rights.
Magali Cornelissen, who was pushed to the ground at the march, told the police about what happened. The head of the MR party, Georges-Louis Bouchez, wrote on Twitter that he was worried about the actions of some people on the left. He said they try to take over movements that are supposed to be for everyone, which hurts the people they’re trying to help.
He called these people radical and sometimes violent, saying they are a danger to democracy. He also said that some groups that get money from the government are funding these people for political reasons. Bouchez wants people who believe in democracy to speak out against this violence, saying that staying quiet makes democracy weaker.
