Ant-asylum protesters throw fireworks bomb at Uitgeest town hall; No arrests
Protesters against an asylum shelter planned on the border of Uitgeest and Heemskerk threw a firework bomb at the Uitgeest town hall on Thursday evening, shattering a window. The mayor of Uitgeest suspended the city council meeting about the planned shelter, and the police had to break up the demonstration, NH Nieuws reports. No arrests were made.
About 350 protesters gathered at the Uitgeest town hall at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, carrying Dutch flags and at least one Prinsenvlag, and bringing a tractor with the words “No, we don’t want an asylum center” in large letters. They planned to attend a city council meeting about the arrival of an asylum shelter on the border of Uitgeest and Heemskerk, which started an hour later, but the police decided it was not safe to let them in.
The protesters chanted, banged on pots and pans, set off fireworks, and briefly sang along to an AI-generated anti-asylum song, according to the broadcaster. They banged on the windows and set off firecrackers. Sometime later, a protester threw a firework bomb at a window, to the sound of loud cheers. The blast blew a large hole in the window, and the mayor suspended the council meeting.
Outside, the police and enforcement officers positioned themselves in front of the town hall to make sure the demonstrators wouldn’t enter. According to NH Nieuws, a group of men wearing sweaters with slogans like “Defend,” “Fuck Antifa,” and “Thrillseeker” shouted anti-asylum slogans louder and louder, trying to drown out the police officer trying to end the protest.
Demonstrators started trickling away, and the square emptied without much fuss. No injuries were reported, and no one was arrested, a police spokesperson told the broadcaster.
Uitgeest and Heeskerk decided to join forces to fulfill their legal obligation to take in asylum seekers by building a single shelter on the border between the two municipalities. A Heemskerk city council meeting on the shelter in September drew a similar protest. According to an NH Nieuws reporter, many of the same faces showed up in Uitgeest on Thursday.
After the meeting, Uitgeest mayor Sebastiaan Nieuwland denounced the protesters’ behavior. “This is unworthy of Uitgeest,” he said. “This is not how we treat each other. We cannot and must never accept this. The right to demonstrate gives people who want to express their concerns and make their voices heard every opportunity to do so. That is part of the rule of law as we know it. Vandalism is never part of it.”
