SEPTEMBER 6, 2025 12:42 PM CET
BY HANNE COKELAEREBelgium’s Security and Home Affairs Minister Bernard Quintin wants to put soldiers on Brussels’ streets to fight escalating drug violence, a plan that is nearing realization.

“The army has to defend the integrity of the territory. Usually, soldiers do this at our borders or far beyond them. But the war against drug crime also falls under the protection of our territory,” Quintin told De Standaard in an interview published Saturday.

The Belgian capital has been plagued by a spate of drug-related shootings. Last month, Brussels prosecutor Julien Moinil decried the escalating violence, counting 57 shootings this year, 20 of which happened over the summer.
The prosecutor — under police protection following threats from traffickers — had previously asked for €10 million to improve safety in Brussels, but said that authorities weren’t giving him the resourceshe needs. He warned that innocent citizens risk being pulled into the spiraling violence: “Anyone in Brussels could be hit by a stray bullet.”

In the run-up to budget negotiations, Belgium’s Justice Minister Annelies Verlinden is asking for an additional €1 billion for her department.

Quintin, a Brussels local, has branded the security situation of his hometown “catastrophic,” slamming traffickers’ brazen attitude in the city in an interview with POLITICO in May.

“I’m exaggerating, of course, but currently we’re almost in a situation where a guy comes in, unfolds his little chair, and sets up his little table and his parasol,” he said then.

Under the new plan, Quintin told De Standaard, soldiers would operate in mixed teams, patrolling together with police. Their operations would be focused around metro stations and certain districts, such as Peterbos in the Anderlecht commune in the southwest of Brussels.

The political decision to deploy soldiers has already been taken, but the details still have to be ironed out, Quintin said. He is pushing for implementation “as soon as possible.”

The legal framework to put soldiers on the streets is ready and the draft will soon be sent to the Council of Ministers, Defense Minister Theo Francken confirmed Saturday on X. “Our capital, Brussels, is a disaster in terms of security. We need to take back control,” Francken wrote.

Their plan has already raised questions: “Could we perhaps start with the €10 million Julien Moinil (Brussels prosecutor) requested to address the insecurity in our capital? No legal framework is needed for that,” commented Frédéric De Gucht, who represents the Flemish liberal Open VLD party in Brussels.

Quintin’s proposal is part of a broader “large cities” plan, which also includes increased camera surveillance among other measures. Besides the Brussels region, that plan also comprises the cities of Antwerp, Ghent, Liège, Charleroi and Mons.

Authorities’ attempts to clamp down on drug crime in Brussels come against a backdrop of prolonged political paralysis in the capital, as the Brussels region has so far failed to establish a government following elections in June 2024.

David Leisterh, the Brussels leader of Quintin’sFrench-speaking liberal MR party, told La Libre on Saturday that it could become necessary to organize new elections. The national leader of his party, Georges-Louis Bouchez, repeated Friday night that Brussels will “inevitably” be placed under control of the national government.

As Brussels grapples with a surge in violent crime, new figures place the Belgian capital among the most dangerous regions in the European Union.

According to Eurostat, Brussels recorded 3.19 intentional homicides per 100,000 people in 2023. That is the second-highest rate in the EU when compared with other major socio-economic regions.

In Latvia, which is classified as a comparable region for statistical purposes, the number is 4.2.

Belgium as a whole recorded a rate of 1.38, which is still the third-highest homicide rate in the EU after Latvia (4.2) and Lithuania (2.41).

The Eurostat category of ‘intentional homicide’ includes murder, deadly assault, assassination, terrorism, femicide, infanticide, voluntary manslaughter, extrajudicial killings, and illegal killings by police or military forces.

The data come as the city’s chief public prosecutor Julien Moinil warned last week that the capital is on track for a record year of gun violence in 2025.

So far this year, Brussels has recorded 57 shootings, including 20 since the start of summer.

Police data show that in all of 2024, there were 92 incidents, which left nine people dead and 48 injured.

The most recent spate of violence this summer has already surpassed the toll of the first six weeks of 2025, when two people were killed and four wounded in 11 shootings.

Moinil revealed that 6,211 adult suspects and 874 minors have been indicted this year, three times as many as during the same period in 2024. Among them are 1,250 suspected drug dealers.

Addressing the violence, Moinil stressed that investigators are making progress, but that problems cannot be fixed straight away.
People should not think that the Justice Department isn’t doing its job. However, the consequences of 10 or 15 years of lax policies are not something that can be fixed in 6 months.
The prosecutor reiterated his call for greater resources to tackle drug-related crime, pointing to persistent staff shortages at the federal judicial police.

He also called for faster deportation procedures for foreign nationals who have been convicted of crimes and do not hold residence permits who are convicted of crimes.

Rival drug gangs, mostly of North African origin, have increasingly dominated parts of the capital in recent years.

The port of Antwerp, just 55 kilometres north of Brussels, has become a major hub for cocaine imports into Europe and has been targeted by grenade attacks linked to organised crime.

Citizens’ groups in Brussels have complained of worsening lawlessness in certain neighbourhoods and are demanding a stronger police presence.

According to a recent survey, nearly one in five residents of Brussels now feel unsafe in their own neighbourhood—double the national average and up three points since 2021.

Interior Minister Bernard Quintin has described crime in the capital as a systemic problem that needs a systemic response