Anti-asylum protesters block highway in Den Bosch; Right-wing MP's join Loosdrecht march
Protesters demonstrated against planned asylum shelters in Den Bosch and Loosdrecht on Wednesday. In Den Bosch, about 100 people blocked the A59, closing the highway toward Waalwijk for about half an hour. In Loosdrecht, hundreds of people, including right-wing parliamentarians Gidi Marksuzower and Mona Keijzer, held a “funeral march” for “the loss of democracy.”
In Den Bosch, about 100 protesters gathered at the A59 exit in the early evening and then walked onto the highway, Omroep Brabant reported. They carried flares and banners with messages against the long-term asylum center the municipality wants to open on an industrial estate next to the highway. The center will house 50 unaccompanied children aged 15 to 18.
About ten police officers were at the scene. A police spokesperson told the broadcaster they decided against intervening in the highway protest because it looked like it would end quickly. After about half an hour, the protesters left the highway, and Rijkswaterstaat reopened it to traffic.
This was not the first protest against the planned shelter for children. Last month, between 50 and 100 protesters also took to the streets near the intended location for the shelter. They threw stones and fireworks while the municipality was holding an information evening about the reception center at the industrial estate. Then, too, protesters tried to walk onto the A59 highway. The riot police intervened and arrested two people.
In Loosdrecht, a few hundred protesters, including the two right-wing parliamentarians, held a “funeral march” to mourn the “loss of democracy.” A coffin bearing the word “democracy” lay on a flatbed trailer behind a tractor, surrounded by black flags, ANP reported. A portrait of Pim Fortuyn, a right-wing politician who was shot dead 24 years ago on Wednesday, also stood on the coffin.
Protesters shouted slogans like “get rid of asylum seekers” and “we are the Netherlands.” Markuszower gave a speech saying, among other things, that asylum seekers must “return to their own country.”
The march ended at the town hall on Rading, where the municipality of Wijdemeren plans to house temporarily 70 asylum seekers. The municipality scaled down the number of people who will stay in the building due to a week of violent protests and vandalism. The shelter was set to open on Wednesday, but the municipality postponed it again. Wijdemeren expects the first people to arrive in the week of May 11.
Violent protests against sheltering asylum seekers have been flaring up in the Netherlands again in recent weeks. On Tuesday, anti-asylum protesters in Apeldoorn pelted police officers with fireworks, blocked traffic, and occupied a roundabout.
