Video: Violent far-right demonstrators attack asylum center supporters in Uithoorn
A protest in support of an asylum shelter in Uithoorn, Noord-Holland, had to be cut short on Thursday evening when anti-asylum protesters started attacking them. The anti-asylum group threw the protesters with bottles and eggs and set off several smoke bombs, AD reports. The riot police kept the two groups apart and later led the pro-asylum shelter protesters away for their safety.
Uithoorn is opening an asylum shelter for up to 250 people in a former office building on Wiegerbruinlaan. The municipality issued the necessary permits this week.
Several hundred anti-asylum protesters held a march from the site of the planned shelter to the town hall. A few meters away, the supporters of the shelter were holding their demonstration, with banners reading “My Netherlands is hospitable” and “Welcome everyone.” They chanted, “Refugees are welcome here.”
PVV leader Geert Wilders addressed the anti-asylum group at the town hall, telling the cheering crowd that “our people are being replaced” and advocating for “repatriation.”
That is similar rhetoric to the other far-right party, FvD, which got FvD leader Liddewij de Vos an hour-long scolding in parliament earlier this week. One after another, party leaders from the left and right demanded that she distance herself from racist, extremist ideologies and condemn violent protests, while she dodged answering their questions.
After Wilders’ speech, the anti-asylum group turned on the other protesters, throwing eggs and bottles at them, booing them, and chanting anti-asylum slogans. The riot police kept the two groups apart.
Ultimately, the pro-asylum demonstration was cut short, and the police led these protesters away. No arrests were reported.
Anti-asylum protesters hung large Dutch flags in the square, and many also carried their own flags. The orange-white-blue Prinsenvlag, used by the Nazi NSB and very popular in far-right circles, also made an appearance.
Deventer
Police also kept pro- and anti-asylum protesters apart in Deventer, which is planning to house 50 children in a vacant office building on Diepenveenseweg, Hart van Nederland reported.
Approximately 200 people supporting the asylum shelter for unaccompanied children gathered on De Brink in the city center and gave speeches there before marching to the Grote Kerkhof.
At the same time, about 40 anti-asylum protesters gathered at the proposed location for the shelter. They walked to the same square via a different route.
The police kept the two groups apart, and there were no incidents, a police spokesperson said.
