The Dutch capital, The Hague, has had a nervous day: Both angry farmers and climate activists have taken to the streets. 3,000 people blocked a highway and played music.
Thousands of people gathered in the Zuiderpark in The Hague to protest against the Farmers’ Defense Force – an association that defends farmers’ interests. Many people were flipping Dutch flags with them, wearing red farmers’ bandannas and heart balloons. They had only two tractors – that’s all the city authorities did not allow. It even issued an emergency order to that effect, allowing Army trucks to park vehicles on the outskirts of the city.
Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders, among others, addressed the protesters. He called on demonstrators to vote in the provincial elections in the Netherlands next Wednesday. “Do you want more or less rota and kaj,” he asked the demonstrators, a variation of his controversial Moroccan statement. “Less!” the activists shouted loudly. “Then we will arrange it.” The leader of the Freedom and Democracy Party called nitrogen “an excuse to drive out farmers and cram a country into thousands of homes for asylum seekers.”
• Holland shows how (not) to solve the nitrogen crisis
The atmosphere was calm, although there was disturbance on the edge of the field shortly after noon. One person was arrested.
The Farmers Defense Force (FDF) earlier announced the “largest demonstration ever” and said they hoped the number of protesters would reach 100,000. According to the municipality, the working group indicated that 25,000 people would come.
Water hose stickers
A few kilometers later, climate activists from Extinction Rebellion (XR) occupied the A12 motorway in The Hague. From different angles, several thousand activists sat at the entrance to the tunnel. They hung black clothes. Action against Extinction Rebellion supports fossil fuels.
The police said they wanted the protesters to leave before dark. They began clearing the highway around 6 p.m. XR demonstrators are removed from the highway and put on buses. Police said they were arrested. Police have previously tried to discourage activists by spraying them with water cannons.
The municipality had stated that the demonstration should end at 5 p.m. Then the police will take measures to clear the area.” Some activists handcuffed themselves to each other.
No permit was given for the siege, but a few thousand people took to the road early in the afternoon. The road has now reopened in both directions.
