No fireworks ban this year; Cabinet needs more time
It will likely be impossible to implement a general fireworks ban by this coming New Year’s Eve. Working out all the parliamentarians’ conditions for the bill will take at least another 18 months, and there are all kinds of practical and financial bottlenecks to clear, State Secretary Chris Jansen of Public Transport and the Environment said in a parliamentary debate on the matter, NOS reports.
The Coalition party NSC threw its support behind a GroenLinks-PvdA and PvdD proposal for a general fireworks ban on Tuesday, providing a large majority support in parliament. The VVD also supports the ban. Both coalition parties attached conditions to that support.
The VVD, for example, wants the Cabinet to come up with a detailed plan for enforcing the ban and combating illegal fireworks. VVD and NSC also want a ChristenUnie plan to be worked out in more detail. The Christian party wants to allow mayors to give exemptions for setting off fireworks, but only in neighborhood or association contexts. “We do not want to completely rule out the setting off of fireworks,” VVD MP Inge Michon said.
PVV State Secretary Jansen thinks that elaborating this plan will be “time-consuming” and take at least 18 months. Because exceptions immediately raise questions, as JA21 MP Joost Eerdmans was quick to point out. “Can I also submit an application with my wife and children?” Eerdmans wanted to know. That means there will be no fireworks ban this New Year’s Eve, Jansen said.
GroenLinks-PvdA, PvdD, and ChristenUnie find that worrying. ChristenUnie fears an “armageddon” - a biblical term for a catastrophe - if firework lovers get to “let loose” for the last time. GroenLinks-PvdA pushed for urgency. “It really has to be as soon as possible, because a later implementation date also has a price for the emergency services and the police,” MP Jesse Klaver said.
Many parties stressed that they found it a shame that this Dutch tradition is disappearing. But they added that the many measures to stop the increasing violence against first responders have not helped. “A fireworks ban is not fun,” Klaver said. But the initiators see no other choice.
BBB leader Caroline van der Plas was visibly upset by the approaching fireworks ban. She called it incomprehensible that MPs want to put an end to a “fun party where good citizens set off a decorative pot.”
State Secretary Jansen said that the Cabinet is “neutral” about the ban, but will only start working on implementation once parliament has definitively approved the bill. The same goes for compensation - Jansen wants parliament to figure out how to compensate the fireworks sector.
This “dogmatic position” particularly annoyed ChristenUnie MP Mirjam Bikker.
