Justice Minister backtracks and calls Hague rioters right-wing extremists
Caretaker Justice Minister Foort van Oosten believes he reacted too rigidly on Tuesday afternoon when asked about the riots in The Hague on Saturday. Van Oosten refused to say anything about the rioters’ motives, but backtracked a bit in the evening, calling them far-right rioters in a parliamentary debate, NU.nl reports.
An anti-immigration demonstration on and around the Malieveld in The Hague on Saturday quickly escalated to riots. Rioters attacked the police, set police cars on fire, and attacked the D66 party office, among other things. Several rioters were sentenced to prison or community service on Tuesday.
Following the riots, the police blamed football hooligans, among others. But D66 leader Rob Jetten and others called it “political violence,” pointing out that rioters weren’t chanting for their football teams, but about the far-right replacement conspiracy theory. VVD Minister Eelco Heinen of Finance responded that Jetten was “politically escalating things that weren’t political.”
Parliament summoned Van Oosten, as the responsible Minister, to the Tweede Kamer on Tuesday to explain the events. MPs asked him to characterize the riots. Van Oosten expressed his horror at events, but declined to comment on the rioters’ possible motives. This annoyed many parliamentarians, partly because the Cabinet was quick to offer such a qualification after the Maccabi Tel Aviv riots in Amsterdam last year.
Van Oosten backtracked a bit later on Tuesday evening, during a parliamentary debate on anti-Semitism. He said that he had been “too rigid” earlier in the day. “I want to emphasize that I watched with horror as these hooligans and far-right rioters used violence, including the Hitler salute and shouted the most horrific slogans,” Van Oosten said. “I find that Nazi, anti-Semitic, and therefore reprehensible and appalling. If I didn’t make that sufficiently clear during question time this afternoon, I will do so now.”
Van Oosten reiterated that he is cautious about speaking about the rioters' motives because he “didn’t want to negatively influence the criminal cases against the rioters in any way.” He did not say why this wasn’t a concern after the Macabbi Tel Aviv riots.
The parliamentary debate on the government’s approach to anti-Semitism was already scheduled before Saturday’s riots. Many of the 57 measures in the government’s plan are still in development, but several parties have already called on the Minister to take additional steps. Nearly the entire Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, agreed that Dutch school children should visit a Holocaust site at least once and urged the government to develop a plan for that visit.
The Kamer will hold a dedicated debate on the riots in The Hague on Thursday.
