At least 90 people have been arrested after anti-migration protesters clashed with police outside EU institutions in Brussels.
Authorities fired teargas and used water cannon as around 5,500 people demonstrated against a UN migration pact signed last week in Marrakech, Morocco, at a rally organised by the Belgian far-right party Vlaams Belang.
The non-binding international agreement to manage the global migration crisis has proven politically divisive in Belgium, prompting ministers from a Flemish nationalist party to quit the government last week.
Authorities broke up the demonstration after firecrackers and projectiles were thrown on Sunday, according to reporters on the ground.
A counter-rally, which drew around 1,000 protesters, and the anti-migration demonstration had initially been banned by Belgian authorities over fears of unrest, but the country’s supreme administrative court overturned the decision.
The Belgian prime minister, Charles Michel, was given permission to form a minority administration following the resignations of ministers from the New Flemish Alliance over the UN migration pact.
The pact was agreed in July by all 193 UN members except the US, but only 164 formally signed it at the meeting last Monday.
