The terror suspects who were arrested in Belgium earlier this week, plotted an assassination attempt on the Antwerp mayor Bart De Wever, the Belgian Public Prosecution Service reports. Among other things, they were angry about the Antwerp headscarf ban for counter staff, write Belgian newspapers.
On Monday evening, the police arrested seven men and a woman in and around Antwerp and in and around Brussels. They formed two groups that, possibly together, would breed attacks. Among the Antwerp detainees is a Turkish man in his thirties, the others are 19 or early 20s.
Justice minister Vincent Van Quickenborne “can confirm that the name of the mayor of Antwerp has been mentioned,” he says on the Belgian news channel Radio 1. “From the moment there were indications of violence, people intervened.” According to the minister, the murder plans were not yet ‘concrete’, but ‘no risks were taken’.
The radicalized suspects would also have targeted police stations. They collected firearms, among other things, writes the newspaper Het Nieuwsblad.
In addition to being mayor of the large port city, De Wever is also the leader of the largest party in Flanders. This makes the mediagenic Flemish nationalist one of the most influential politicians in Belgium.
Right-wing extremism in Belgium
The threat of right-wing extremism in Belgium has been increasing for some time, in conjunction with extremism against the government, the Belgian security service reported in a report earlier this year. The service that monitors the security of Belgium points to an important trend within right-wing extremism, namely the ‘worrying radicalization of young people’.
The VSSE has noticed for several years that right-wing extremists are increasingly targeting the government or other symbols of the ‘establishment’ with their discourse or actions: the press, which they call the ‘mainstream media’ or ‘left-wing liars’, academics, with especially the virologists, and politicians.
Fueling hate
The government is more and more often the head of Jut than other ‘classical’ targets of right-wing extremism such as asylum centres, mosques or synagogues. “Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and the rising energy prices, it is striking that right-wing extremists are again trying to stir up anger and hatred against the government,” the VSSE points out.
The graphic style and hateful content bear resemblance to the Islamic State’s glorification of violence several years ago
In Belgium, too, the VSSE notes that more and more young people are becoming radicalized at a rapid pace from behind their PCs or on their smartphones and in some cases are emerging as hate propagandists and ‘keyboard warriors’ who incite hatred and violence. “The graphic style and the highly hateful and downright violent content of their messages on various social media platforms, such as Telegram, bear certain resemblances to the Islamic State’s glorification of violence several years ago,” it said.
Serious challenge
In the past two years, the VSSE has passed on several files of radicalized young people to the police services and the public prosecutor’s office. In some cases it concerned minors who preached hatred and violence behind their screens with radical Nazi and anti-Semitic views, in other cases young people who themselves threatened violence. “The timely detection and timely prevention of these impressionable and impulsive young people turning to violence will be a serious challenge for the VSSE and the other intelligence and security services in the coming years.”
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