Animal party to press charges against liberal leader for releasing balloons

Animal party PvdD will press charges against VVD party leader Klaas Dijkhoff on Tuesday for environmental pollution. Dijkhoff released 500 balloons at a VVD congress in Den Bosch on Saturday, AD reports.

With the release of the balloons, Dijkhoff responded to accusations that he released too many "test balloons" in his political work. He asked the the attendees of the congress to write down political ideas, which were attached to the balloons and released into the air.

According to PvdD parliamentarian Christine Theunissen, the "distribution of 500 pieces of litter is an economic offense". She will file charges against Dijkhoff at a police station in The Hague on Tuesday morning. "I think it is a matter of principle, the Public Prosecutor must also find that", Theunissen said to the newspaper.

Noord-Brabant forester Frans Kapteijns, who had to deal with many of the fallen balloons, is happy that charges is being pressed against Dijkhoff, he said to the newspaper. "All the more because the VVD gave a very weak defense. The balloons were supposedly less harmful and Dijkhoff refused to respond to the criticism. That shows how much this interests them", he said.

Kapteijns hopes that this will result in a national ban on the release of balloons. "I do not want to say that the artist who makes nice things with balloons has to stop. That's not necessary as far as I'm concerned, as long as they don't release them and clean everything up properly."