More than 500 demonstrators gathered in a unique alliance between unions and civil society and went around the Egmont Palace to peacefully express their opposition to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, one of the key items discussed during the European Business Summit held at the palace.

While no overflow or violence had been reported, the police, present in large numbers, arrested some 250 protesters. Among those arrested were lawyers, trade unionists and deputies - persons not suspected of being thugs.

Confronted by this arbitrary and illegitimate mass arrest (could half of the protesters be potential criminals?), the League of Human Rights protests this new attack by the police - and more broadly by the state - against freedom of expression and freedom of manifestation.

Will these freedoms be taken away, suffering the same fate that awaits the protective regulations in the negotiations of the Transatlantic Partnership, namely the removal of obstacles for free trade and commerce?

Is the saying "No obstacle to trade” being dangerously expanded to "No obstacle for ideas that create trade"?

The peaceful expression of ideas that warn of the serious consequences of a negotiated treaty, beyond any democratic dialogue on our social model, seems to have become an extremely dangerous practice.