Statement on the Royal Rebellion

Dear rebels,

After what happened on 12th October during the Royal Rebellion we would like to share a few thoughts with you.

The first and most important one is that we’re unbelievably grateful to every one of you that came. We’re proud of the courage that you’ve shown, the beautiful energy on the Royal Square, around the gardens of the King, and in most jail cells afterwards. We’re impressed by the huge success of the conversations that came about during the People’s Assemblies and the care that people were taking during and after the police violence. Thank you for being an example.

Unfortunately, the police used some brutal tactics to stop our efforts. Efforts that were made to explore and test collective intelligence in the form of People’s Assemblies. Let it be clear: the amount of input that we got about how to deal with the current climate, ecological, and social crisis is so extensive, that there is no doubt about the effectiveness, but also the threat that it forms to the status quo.

The totally unexpected violence was used to divide and scare us. It is clear how authorities answered our action: do as you’re told, don’t question what society should be like or how society should develop. Go home, go work, produce, consume and above all: don’t worry. It’s thus heartwarming to see all of your testimonies coming in and to read that so many of you are determined to continue this fight for our collective future. It’s the same determination that made us remain non-violent in the face of aggression. It’s something to be proud of and we applaud you all for it.

We realise as an organisation that we are not perfect and we are well aware of that; we express our sorrow for the happenings and we apologise from the deepest of our hearts to the people who got hurt at our action. We want to stress our support for all the other organisations, minorities, and people with different backgrounds or colours, like the Sanspapiers and Gilets Jaunes, who were victims of barbaric police violence.

We’re in this together, with love and rage!

What’s next?

• We encourage everybody who wants to testify about the police violence on 12th October to email us at [email protected] before 25th October.
• We will bundle all of the testimonies and present them as a collective complaint to several institutions in the name of Extinction Rebellion Belgium. You can also file individual complaints. Please keep up us up-to-date about those.
 For more info and guidelines, please see our Royal Rebellion page. All photos and videos are welcome too.
• You will be updated about the input of the People’s Assemblies at a later date.

Want to get more involved in Extinction Rebellion?


Come to one of our introduction sessions, XR cafes, or other events in your neighbourhood. See the list on Facebook.

And don’t forget to join a local group!

Love and Rage,

Extinction Rebellion Belgium