The leader of Belgium’s Vlaams Belang party has ignited fresh controversy after sharing footage of a densely packed Ostend beach during last weekend’s heatwave, declaring that “foreigners are ruining” one of Belgium’s most beloved coastal destinations — in a post that drew both widespread support and fierce accusations of racist fearmongering, and arrives against a backdrop of dramatic demographic transformation across Belgium and Europe.
Tom Van Grieken posted the approximately 44-second clip on X, filmed on the beach at the popular North Sea resort during the 25-26 May weekend when temperatures hit 25 to 26 degrees Celsius. Alongside the footage, he wrote: “Ostend. A cozy day at the beach this weekend is being ruined here too by foreigners. Is this even Ostend anymore? The only way to fix this is by supporting the one party in this country that DOESN’T look the other way, names the problems, and has decisive solutions for this scum. That’s Vlaams Belang. Time for law and order!”
The clip shows a heavily crowded stretch of sand packed with predominantly young men, many shirtless and holding phones, with police officers visible among the crowd. The post attracted nearly 2,000 likes rapidly, with supporters comparing the scenes to what they described as third-world chaos and calling for deportations.
Critics responded swiftly, accusing Van Grieken of selectively framing normal beach crowding in racial terms and deliberately stoking tensions for political effect. No significant violence on the beach itself was confirmed by police. Nearby incidents on the same weekend included a knife fight on a train and disturbances on trams amid massive crowds travelling to the coast from cities including Brussels, but authorities did not link those directly to the beach scene in the footage.
The video landed in a country whose demographics have been shifting at a pace that has few parallels anywhere in western Europe. According to StatBel, Belgium’s official government statistics organisation, 72.9 per cent of children and young people aged between zero and 17 in Brussels now have a migration background from outside the European Union or were born outside the EU. Only 10.56 per cent in that age group are Belgians of exclusively Belgian origin. Overall, 78 per cent of Brussels’s population is now classified as being of non-Belgian origin. Around 36 per cent of Brussels residents are from non-European backgrounds, predominantly Moroccan, Turkish and Sub-Saharan African, while approximately 23 per cent of the city’s inhabitants are Muslim.
In some of Brussels’s central municipalities — including Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Molenbeek and the City of Brussels itself — more than one in three residents was born outside the European Union entirely. The pattern is repeated, if less extremely, in other major Belgian cities. Around 23 per cent of Antwerp’s population and 20 per cent of Liège’s was born outside the EU.
The episode reflects a recurring pattern in Belgium during heatwaves and public holidays. Coastal towns like Ostend have repeatedly seen large influxes of day-trippers from Brussels and other cities, many from immigrant backgrounds, leading to reports of overcrowding, tension and what local media has described as an “aggressive atmosphere” on peak days. Similar flashpoints occurred on 1 May and on previous warm weekends earlier in 2026.
Vlaams Belang, which has been polling strongly across Flanders, has made the visible transformation of Belgian public spaces a central theme in its messaging on migration and integration. Mainstream parties have generally pushed back, arguing the issues are rooted in poverty and social exclusion rather than culture or origin. The video has done little to resolve that debate — but has ensured it remains firmly in the public eye.
