Republicans Want To Meet King

Protesters arrested in Amsterdam's Dam Square on April 30 during the inauguration have requested a face-to-face meeting with new King Willem-Alexander. Republican activist Hans Maessen wrote a letter stating that he and Joanna van der Hoek want to exchange points of views about how to better protect freedom of speech in the Netherlands. The two activists who were on the Dam Square to protest against the monarchy were arrested by police and released shortly thereafter. The police has since acknowledged an error in judgment, and apologized to both Maessen and van der Hoek. According to Mayor Eberhard van der Laan the arrests were made due to an unfortunate case of mistaken identities. Following an investigation he emphasized that this was not a set up to remove two activists from Dam square moments before the new King was set to appear before the crowd. Van der Hoek was also arrested in February during another demonstration. On that occasion, then-PrinceWillem-Alexander commented that the arresting officers had made a mistake. There has been no official comment yet by the King on the Dam Square arrests during his inauguration.