A demonstration against immigration and convened this Saturday in the center of the Dutch city of The Hague has been the scenario of strong disturbances between police and protesters. These have launched stones and bottles to the forces of the order, have burned police vehicles and have also attacked the headquarters of the Progressive Party D66. For its part, the Police have used water cannons and tear gas to dissolve the protest, which has brought together some 1,500 people, according to the authorities. The act was authorized until five in the afternoon, but has been suspended in advance by the organizers due to violence. The police have not yet offered figures on possible detainees or injured.
The demonstration had been convened by a 26 -year -old activist who is presented as Els Rechts, who accumulates thousands of followers in their social networks and who raised almost 20,000 euros last week through the fund collection platform Gofundme to carry out the protest. Rechts is a new face of the national right, he declares himself Christian and, in view of unleashed disturbances, he said he rejects “any form of violence.” The entire national political arch has condemned the facts of the party for freedom (PVV). The tumult has occurred when a month is missing for and the matches are practically campaigning.
The demonstration began around noon in Malieveld, an esplanade located in front of the Central Trains Station of The Hague, near the Parliament. Police estimated that there were about 1,500 people and the situation quickly got out of control. A group began throwing stones and bottles against the uniformed, who dissolved the protest. The violent did not cease and, while they chanted slogans like “we are the Netherlands,” tried to enter Binnenhof. This is the historical complex of Parliament, which is currently closed by works. The crystals of the D66 headquarters also broke, a left -wing liberal formation, seen by the extreme right as the progressive elite party.
The violence unleashed against police officers has generated the generalized repulsion of the right and left Dutch political parties. Geert Wilders, who had been invited to the protest and has not appeared, has described as “totally unacceptable” what happened. .
For her part, the president of the Police Union, Nine Kooiman, has been furious with the uproar. In his X account he has written: “How do you think of using so much aggressiveness against our people? They stop, punish and claim damages and injuries to these idiots. It is crazy.”
The union is the largest of its class of police workers. The minister in functions of justice and security, Foort Van Oosten, has also resorted to social networks to criticize the facts. “Manifesting is a great good in the Netherlands, but do not touch our agents,” said the outgoing prime minister, Dick Schoof, has noticed that “there is always room to demonstrate, but never for violence.”
Els Rechts advocates “Dutch values, security and traditions,” he says on his website. The young woman claims to be “believer in God” and speak “in the name of the middle Dutch who does not feel heard.” In one of the photos of its social networks, it carries a bracelet that has written the motto “Netherlands is ours”. This Saturday he regretted that “a small group of protesters has not known how to behave.” On the Internet there are both of his with Geert Wilders and Thierry Baudet, leader of the Forum for Democracy (FVD), the other Dutch party of the extreme right.
