XR activists want to block the A10 in Amsterdam near ING headquarters despite ban

Climate activists from Extinction Rebellion (XR) plan to block the A10 highway in Amsterdam for the second time on Saturday around noon, near the former ING headquarters in Amsterdam-Zuid. They are demanding that ING stop all financing and services for the fossil fuel industry. The Amsterdam Triangle (mayor, police and public prosecutor) considers the action extremely dangerous and has banned it.

Just this week, Mayor Femke Halsema sent an "urgent appeal" to climate activists not to use the highway. She said that the section of the A10, which is driven at 100 kilometers per hour, is close to the VUmc and is an important route for ambulances, for example.

Nevertheless, XR wants to continue the action despite the appeal and the ban. The climate activists also do not want to stand at the alternative location offered by the municipality, a meadow next to the Amstelveenseweg. However, there will be a rally next to the A10 for supporters who do not want to go onto the highway. "We assume that this second A10 blockade will be just as safe and responsible as the first," said the climate action group.

According to XR spokesperson Let de Jong, last year was “the hottest year ever measured, we see climate disaster after climate disaster. Yet ING persists in its fossil policy. Since the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, which ING says it endorses, the bank has fueled the climate and ecological crisis with almost 60 billion euros in fossil financing. Therefore we have no other choice,” it was said in the press release of the climate action group.

On December 30, activists blocked the A10 for around five hours. This action was also prohibited. As a result, almost 400 people were arrested. On Thursday, the public prosecutor's office announced that six participants had been fined 200 euros for "posing a danger to the road".

In a recent debate in the city council, Halsema said that the fact that the climate action group wants to hold a blockade on the A10 for the second time leads to a "different attitude" in the triangle and that "proportionality is weighted differently". She also did not want to anticipate how the demonstration would be handled.