Six minors in custody for Hague riots; Political violence, not hooligans: D66 leader

Six minors were among the people arrested during violent riots in The Hague on Saturday, chief commissioner Karin Krukkert of The Hague Police, told Nieuwsuur. According to Krukkert, a collection of football hooligans and members of far-right groups quickly turned the anti-immigration protest violent.

D66 leader Rob Jetten strongly disagrees with claims that hooligans hijacked an innocent demonstration. His party’s offices were attacked during the riots. “They didn’t shout ‘Go ADO’ or ‘Go FC Utrecht,’ but they chanted slogans about claiming the Nehterlands.” A slogan linked with the far-right conspiracy theory that non-Western immigrants are replacing white Dutch.

Rioters clashed with the police during an anti-immigration demonstration on and around the Malieveld on Saturday. They also committed vandalism in The Hague’s city center, including pelting the D66 office with stones. The police used tear gas and a water cannon on the rioters. The police arrested 37 people, 27 of whom, including the minors, are still in custody. They will be arraigned on Tuesday. The other ten are no longer in custody, but still suspects.

Krukkert told Nieuwsuur that a group of 1,200 people split off from the Malieveld demonstration and turned violent. “We quickly realized they had come to The Hague for a completely different purpose than demonstrating,” Krukkert said. “They first occupied the A12 highway, and then immediately turned violent against the police officers present.”

According to the police commissioner, a letter circulated ahead of the demonstration in which the hardcore of The Hague supporter groups invited other supporter groups to the city. The police were therefore extra prepared for disruptions. “We had water cannons and even used tear gas,” Krukkert said. But the violence that police officers faced was “unprecedented.”

D66 leader Jetten is outraged that this is being played off as football violence. During the demonstration, protesters displayed Prince’s flags, a symbol used by far-right groups today and formerly by the NSB. They also chanted anti-Semitic slogans and slogans propagating the far-right “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory.

According to Jetten, the rioters used texts and words that are also used in parliament, including by PVV leader Geert Wilders. Jetten also spoke about the demonization of former D66 leader Sigrid Kaag and GroenLinks-PvdA leader Frans Timmermans. “Politicians are planting seeds. Then it is up to all democratic forces to say: we won’t stand for this.”

Caretaker Finance Minister Eelco Heinen disputed Jetten's linking the riots to Wilders’ extreme language. “Then you start linking things that have nothing to do with each other. These are hooligans; it has nothing to do with each other,” the VVD politician claimed.

Jetten rejected this criticism, pointing out that VVD politicians are quick to condemn certain expressions when they’re made at Gaza demonstrations, but are remarkably silent now.

SP leader Jimmy Dijk also connected the riots with the political debate. This is “the Nehterlands after decades of right-wing politics,” he said. GL-PvdA leader Timmermans spoke of “Trumpian situations fueled by politicians to sow fear and division.”

A survey last year showed that roughly one in six Dutch people believed the Netherlands was being flooded with non-Western immigrants in an intentional effort to affect the population, a conspiratorial concept known as the Great Replacement Theory. Nearly 15,000 people took part in the study, with 75 percent of voters for the fringe right-wing party, Forum voor Democratie, saying they believe the theory to be true.

The theory has been classified by Dutch intelligence agencies as extremist, and one that can lead to right-wing political violence. Still, about 42 percent of voters for the far-right nationalist PVV believe the idea, with party leader Geert Wilders and other senior PVV politicians only offering a tepid criticism in the past. His party is the largest in Parliament, and he is an outspoken supporter of other hard-line nationalist leaders, like Viktor Orban in Hungary, Donald Trump in the U.S., and French political party leader Marine Le Pen.

Wilders condemned the riots, but also called Timmermans an “inciter” for linking the violence to the political debate.

Domestic intelligence service AIVD has issued warnings for nearly a decade about its concerns over far-right motivated terrorism related to issues of Muslims living in the Netherlands, immigration, and the arrival of asylum seekers. The country’s counter-terror office, NCTV, previously cautioned about the normalization of radical theories, like the Great Replacement Theory, especially in online discourse.