Mayors renew call for national fireworks ban after New Year’s incidents; Police unions agree

Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema issued "another urgent appeal" to the Cabinet to implement a national ban on consumer fireworks after what she said was a tense and difficult New Year’s period in the capital. Similar statements were made by Nijmegen Mayor Hubert Bruls, who is also the chair of the Security Council, as well as the chair of the NPB and ANPV police labor unions.

Even though there is a ban on detonating fireworks in Amsterdam, the problems arose because the rules have not been coordinated nationally, Halsema said. She took to Instagram, calling it an "unsustainable situation."

Halsema went on ride-alongs with the emergency services in the overnight period from Saturday into Sunday and noted that despite the ban, many fireworks were detonated. "The fire brigade worked all night to extinguish and prevent fires. Police officers and [BOA] enforcers had their hands full maintaining public order and supporting the fire brigade and other emergency services."

A fireworks ban during the turn of the new year will only be effective if one national policy is drawn up. Otherwise, it is an "unwinnable competition" if only a few municipalities try to enforce a fireworks ban, Bruls said on Sunday. The Netherlands is too small for such differences in policy, he believes.

Nijmegen was one of the twelve municipalities in the Netherlands with a fireworks ban, but in Nijmegen, like everywhere else, a large number of firecrackers, bottle rockets, and decorative fireworks flew into the air around midnight. "I think the explosions were less and there were also neighborhoods where it was really quiet. But it cannot be denied that many were fired off,” he said.

Bruls stated that the municipalities with a fireworks ban have had a great deal of trouble because of the different rules from city to city, and “you cannot compete” with ministers who think shooting off fireworks is “a fine tradition." Such conflicting messages make it more difficult to convince people to comply with rules. “There really needs to be a good conversation about how we in this country are going to deal with fireworks in the coming years and how we are going to enforce it. I advocate a multi-year plan."

According to the police unions, it was a busy New Year's Eve for police officers in many places and there were many incidents such as vandalism and arson. Several officers suffered injuries, such as hearing damage, because they were pelted with fireworks. In the big cities in particular, the police had their hands full and often intervened just in time before a situation got out of hand, said NPB chairman Jan Struijs. "There were no major incidents, but a hundred minor incidents is just as bad as one major incident. This cannot be the new normal. New Year's Eve should be a folk festival with a socially safe character, but it certainly isn't yet. In some places was it unsafe or even very unsafe."

Xander Simonis of the ANPV said that the fireworks ban seems to have been ignored in almost all places where it was in force. In Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Schiedam and Haarlem, among others, no fireworks were allowed to be set off this past New Year’s. Moving decision-making on the policy from the national level to local governments “does not work at all,” Simonis said. "We have to do something about that. If you prohibit lighting fireworks in your municipality but allow sales, for example, then that cannot be enforced."

According to Struijs, police officers repeatedly complain about the current fireworks policy. "How credible are we as a constitutional state if we say that a fireworks ban applies in twelve municipalities, and not in the three hundred others? We need clear policy, then such a ban must apply to all municipalities. This year it was too unclear."

Nijmegen had eight arrests for misconduct with fireworks before the turn of the year. Many fireworks were also confiscated. During the New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day festivities, the police largely did not intervene. It had been agreed in advance that this would only happen in the event of the most egregious situations, which, according to Bruls, did not materialize.

"It was really less, but I still have mixed feelings about it. It remains a ridiculous night in terms of the deployment of emergency services and incidents. It really needs to be quieter and therefore more fun."

Despite figures being similar to the coronavirus pandemic years when fireworks were banned nationally, the Security Council said the New Year’s period was the busiest 24 hour period of the year for aid workers. Bruls chairs the Council, which is made up of 25 mayors in total, each representing a region in the Netherlands.

According to the municipality of Amsterdam, considerably more people were arrested in the capital this New Year’s than last year. In some places, rioters threw heavy fireworks at police officers, BOA street enforcement teams, and aid workers. According to the municipality, it was particularly restless in Amsterdam-West and on Dam Square.