Mayors of four largest cities call for reopening of terraces

The mayors of Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht support the call from their colleague in Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, to quickly reopen the terraces.

"It is no longer possible to justify that people sit on a blanket with a bottle of rosé on the grass at Hotel New York, but that the catering industry is not allowed to open their terraces," Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb told local broadcaster Rijnmond through his spokesperson.

The Utrecht mayor Sharon Dijksma agrees. When the terraces open, "this literally gives people the space to go out in a responsible way," she says at RTV Utrecht. Her colleague in The Hague, Jan van Zanen, also supports the call, reports Omroep West.

The mayors of the big cities had a lot to deal with in recent days with busy parks, where people kept little or no distance from each other. Two parks in Utrecht were cleared on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the police cleared the Vondelpark in Amsterdam.

This is an important reason for Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema to ask the government to reopen the terraces. "I would much rather see people sitting on a terrace in a orderly manner, instead of having a thousand people in the Vondelpark," she said during the TV program Beau. "The hustle and bustle exist anyway; it can still be managed on the terraces."

It is precisely in order to spread the crowds in the city when the weather is nice. Halsema and Aboutaleb also argue for a quick reopening of recreational centers such as Artis and Blijdorp zoo.

The Security Council, which includes the chairpersons of the 25 security regions, is in favor of a "step by step easing, depending on the state of the vaccination and the epidemiological situation," said a spokesman for Hubert Bruls, chairman of the council and mayor of Nijmegen at Omroep Gelderland.