Quiet night in NL despite curfew confusion

The police deployed extra officers on Tuesday evening due to the confusion around the coronavirus curfew and many social media calls for street parties. But the extra deployment turned out to be unnecessary - the Netherlands was quiet by around 9:30 p.m., the police said to NU.nl.

On Tuesday morning, the court in The Hague ruled that the curfew had to be lifted immediately because it had insufficient legal basis. On Tuesday evening, the court postponed the implementation of that ruling for the time being. That happened at around 8:30 p.m., half an hour before the start of curfew.

Curfew is in place until at least Friday, the court decided. Then the government's appeal against the Tuesday ruling will appear.

The police enforced the curfew on Tuesday, but due to the uncertainty, rather gave warnings instead of fines. The same went for enforcers. "We naturally address people about curfew, but you cannot expect everyone to follow the news from hour to hour," a spokesperson for enforcers union Nederlandse BOA Bond said to the newspaper.

Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security drafted an emergency law to give the curfew stronger legal basis. That law will likely be submitted to parliament on Wednesday.