© Hatim Kaghat/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty ImagesFreedom convoys” passed through Brussels as a protest against coronavirus measures
They came with grand plans to rattle the seat of the European Union, angry about COVID restrictions. But the "European freedom convoy" arrived in Brussels Monday scattered and confused, with occasional bark, yet little bite.
For the moment, the convoy had run low on gas.
On the main roads into Brussels, police diverted vans, campers, buses and cars to a sanctioned protest area — a 10,000-spot parking lot barely within the city limits. The scene was still and sparse, a far cry from the paralyzed bridges and police clashes that have metastasized across the globe in recent weeks as a trucker protest in Canada spread through the U.S., Australia and Europe.
Within the city, protesters on foot popped up in several places as conflicting messages swirled around social media over where to head. At the original protest spot, the Parc du Cinquantenaire just east of the EU institutions, fewer than 100 people had assembled by midday, chatting in small clusters. Elsewhere, helmeted police in riot gear occasionally outnumbered the protesters. In total, the police said, "several hundred demonstrators" showed up.
Still, there were the occasional flare-ups. Some tear gas was deployed in areas where protesters were blocked, and police said they made about 30 arrests for disturbing the peace or for carrying a prohibited weapon. Rumors also circulated late in the day of possible Brussels gatherings on Tuesday, with some people pledging to take advantage of a
planned police strike that has since been delayed.
Comment: The escalation of 'Newspeak' redefinitions of words is rather disturbing. Anyone demanding 'freedom' is now far-right.