Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • Top stories
  • Health
  • Crime
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Tech
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Weird
  • 1-1-2
Image
Mark Rutte
Mark Rutte - Credit: Photo: Corepics/DepositPhotos
Crime
Politics
Mark Rutte
riot
demonstration
coronavirus restrictions
Coronavirus
ACP
NPB
Gerrit van de Kamp
Jan Struijs
Monday, 22 November 2021 - 12:20
Share this:
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • whatsapp
  • reddit

Dutch PM calls riots "pure violence under the guise of demonstration"

According to caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the riots of the past days in various Dutch cities were "pure violence under the guise of demonstrating." He said the police and judiciary would do everything they could to hold those behind the violence accountable.

Rutte said he realizes that there are "a lot of tensions in society because we have been dealing with all the misery of the coronavirus for so long." He said he would always defend the right to protest, but "I will never accept that idiots use sheer violence" against police and paramedics "under the guise of we are dissatisfied."

The police unions also denounced the riots, saying that the police are facing an impossible task.

"In a large number of cities, police officers continue to be confronted with unprecedented and unsparing violence," NPB chairman Jan Struijs said to newspaper AD. "This demands the utmost of police officers to protect citizens and their property. These are going to be exhausting days and weeks."

Gerrit van de Kamp, chairman of police union ACP, agreed with Struijs. "What else is there to say. We saw this coming. We are following it closely," he said to AD. According to him, "the violence seems unlimited." "Police officers face an almost inhumane task."

Reporting by ANP and NL Times

Follow us:

Latest stories

  • Fatal Zwijndrecht mall shooting trial starting May 2024; Girlfriend still paralyzed
  • Dutch court upholds Schengen ban for British conspiracy theorist David Icke
  • €380,000 from Oranje World Cup auction hasn't reached migrant workers in Qatar
  • TU Delft ranks in top 50 on 2024 Times Higher Education list; Six Dutch unis in top 100
  • Netherlands home to nine wolf packs: 39 pups born this spring
  • Center-left coalition set to take control of The Hague City Council

Top stories

  • TU Delft ranks in top 50 on 2024 Times Higher Education list; Six Dutch unis in top 100
  • Social housing rents could increase 5.8% next year; 4.9% increase in free sector
  • VVD under fire for pulling support for asylum distribution law
  • State Sec. orders NS to reconsider rush hour charge, seek alternatives
  • Bus and taxi collide in Friesland, injuring 14 adults & children; 4 critically hurt
  • Dutch Senate rejects Work from Home bill by a single vote

© 2012-2023, NL Times, All rights reserved.

Footer menu

  • Privacy
  • Contact
  • Partner content