Belgian police filter traffic around the Brussels capital region during Monday morning rush hour in an attempt to keep a so-called ‘Freedom Convoy’ protest against coronavirus restrictions under control.
Police narrowed some roads and slowed traffic to maintain control of what they feared would otherwise become a communications blackout like the one truckers have been blocking for three weeks in downtown Ottawa and elsewhere in Canada.
Early indications did not show a groundswell of support for the protest, but police took extensive precautions in and around the European Union headquarters in central Brussels.
Many trucks were expected from France, where Paris police fired tear gas on Saturday at a handful of protesters on the Champs-Elysees avenue who defied a police order by participating in an unauthorized vehicular protest.
Despite that, the threat of blocking Paris did not materialize over the weekend.
In the Netherlands, dozens of trucks and other vehicles, ranging from tractors to a car towing a van, arrived in The Hague on Saturday for a similar virus-related protest, blocking the entrance to the historic Dutch parliament complex.