Most NL residents think restaurant terraces can reopen safely

About 60 percent of Netherlands residents think that the terraces of restaurants and bars can reopen safely in the coronavirus lockdown. General support for the government's approach to the pandemic is waning, according to the most recent survey by I&O Research of 2,685 Dutch. The sample is representative of Netherlands residents from the age of 18, NOS reports.

I&O Research has been surveying Netherlands residents about the coronavirus policy since March last year. The researchers find that support is waning. At the end of January, 75 percent of Netherlands residents supported the general approach to the pandemic, now that's 62 percent. Support for the economic policy dropped from 53 percent end February to 42 percent now, the lowest point since the start of the crisis.

According to I&O researcher Peter Kanne, there's a turnaround in the discussion about the coronavirus policy. Until now, support often declined at times when the population thought the measures weren't strict enough. Support would then increase again when measures were tightened. But now, 59 percent of Netherlands residents want measures to ease. 10 percent want the measures to be completely abandoned. And only 9 percent want lockdown to be tightened further.

"The initial consensus of the benefits of strict policy has turned into increasing discord," Kanne said to NOS. "In particular about the question of whether it is now urgent to give certain sectors in the economy some breathing room again."

Most support for the coronavirus policy can be found among voters for Prime Minister Mark Rutte's VVD at 92 percent. Not even 3 percent of FvD voters support the policy.