In the media
September 30, 2025
On Tuesday, September 30th, the Belgian Dutch-language news magazine Knack published an article about the perceived danger posed by the far left. It includes an interview with Thomas Renard, Director of ICCT.
In the interview, Renard challenged the right-wing idea that the left holds a monopoly on violence. Renard referred to the database of the Coordination Unit for Threat Assessment (OCAD), which lists approximately 600 individuals, only 15 of whom are listed due to their left-wing extremist ideology.
Furthermore, Renard acknowledged the growing levels of support toward the use of violence: "In the West, there's a growing group of people who consider the use of violence justified, even against the government. Anyone who surfs the internet a bit will immediately see that there's a lot of verbal violence online," he stated, "But this trend is increasingly translating into a growing willingness to use physical violence, which is worrying," he added.
Read the full article (in Dutch) here:
