By Marine Strauss
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgium’s parliament has launched a security review of its premises in Brussels after supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
Belgium’s federal parliament is located in a so-called “neutral zone” in Brussels, a neighbourhood that is home to the Royal Palace, the offices and residence of the prime minister and various ministries, and where it is forbidden to protest.
The country of 11 million people is a federal state that counts six governments and as many parliaments across three regions.
“After the incidents in Washington, I took stock of the security of our parliament with the commander in charge of the military police,” the president of the federal parliament, Eliane Tillieux, wrote on Twitter. “There was an urgent need to verify that we can exercise democracy in complete safety.”
Brussels is also home to the European Union’s main institutions and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) military alliance’s headquarters, where small protests on issues from climate change to migration policies are routine.
(Reporting by Marine Strauss @StraussMarine, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
