Belgian students protest education costs in Liège as reported arrests reach 107

Belgian students protested in Liège on Wednesday, October 7, during a fourth day of demonstrations in French-speaking Belgium over education costs and reforms. Hundreds took to the streets, Reuters reported. Anadolu Ajansı reported a total of 107 arrests since early October, citing police figures carried by the Belga news agency; Reuters said it could not immediately reach local authorities to confirm that number.

The demonstrations bring several student grievances into the same dispute: the cost of studying, crowded classrooms and access to materials. They also follow education reforms that students and teachers fear will affect school life. The reported arrest total describes detentions over several days, rather than arrests made during Wednesday’s march alone.

What is known about the Liège arrests

Anadolu Ajansı reported that the 107 total comprised 80 administrative arrests and 27 judicial arrests. It said 53 people were detained on Tuesday, October 6: 46 administratively and seven judicially. Those figures are attributed to police information reported through local authorities and Belga. Reuters separately reported the 107 figure but said local authorities could not immediately be reached for confirmation.

Police attributed property damage and fires to some protesters, according to Anadolu Ajansı. Le Monde reported that a group broke windows by a Liège school on Tuesday. Those incidents should not be taken as a description of everyone who joined the demonstrations: the movement also included peaceful protests. On Wednesday, Reuters reported seeing police check students for weapons.

Why students are protesting education reforms

The protests follow reforms approved on June 5 by the Parliament of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Le Monde reported that the decree provides for €500 million in cost cuts by 2029, against a 2025 education budget of €10.65 billion. Reuters reported that tuition for most students in Belgium’s French-speaking Community increased from €835 to €1,194. Clashes between protesters and police in Brussels followed the reforms in June.

Le Monde reported that another measure raises teachers’ weekly teaching hours from 20 to 22. Students it interviewed worried that the change would leave teachers less time for voluntary and extracurricular projects. That concern is a reported student view about how the measure could affect school activities, rather than an established outcome of the change.

How the Belgian and French protests are connected

Some Liège students told Reuters they were in touch with counterparts in France and saw similarities in the problems they faced. Nineteen-year-old student Alfred said they supported one another because they faced much the same issues. Amelia Di Salve, also 19, told Reuters the Belgian movement had begun earlier this year and that the demonstrations in France influenced students in Belgium somewhat.

That influence does not make the Belgian demands identical to France’s. A student interviewed by Le Monde said the Belgian movement had its own roots and specifically Belgian demands that predated the unrest across the border. The distinction matters because the measures at issue in French-speaking Belgium include its own education decree, tuition increase and changes to teachers’ hours.

Dialogue and further demonstrations

Liège mayor Willy Demeyer told Belgian broadcaster RTBF that he hoped calm would return and that dialogue could let young people express their grievances peacefully and have them heard, Reuters reported. Education minister Valérie Glatigny condemned violence in an October 2 statement while defending the right to protest, according to Le Monde.

Le Monde reported that Glatigny was concerned students were being used by outside radical movements. The French-speaking Students’ Committee rejected the suggestion that the protests were directly imported from France. Its president, Logan Verhoeven, said students were mobilising themselves and criticised what he described as a paternalistic view of their protests.

Verhoeven told Le Monde that a student delegation was due to meet Glatigny on Wednesday afternoon. Le Monde also reported a national demonstration planned for Friday, October 9. Those were reported plans; the available accounts do not establish the outcome of the meeting or whether the later demonstration took place. The reported arrest figures likewise remain attributed pending direct confirmation from local authorities.