The Hague was allowed to block Covid lockdown protests, Council of State rules

The Hague was allowed to ban two demonstrations by the group Viruswaanzin, later known as Viruswaarheid, in June 2020, the Council of State has ruled. The protests against Covid-19 measures were expected to attract so many participants that they posed a risk to public health. In addition, there were not enough police officers available to prevent possible riots.

Viruswaanzin, a conspiracy theory group that has organized multiple protests against Covid-19 measures, wanted to demonstrate on the Malieveld in The Hague on June 20 and June 21, 2020. There was a possibility of around 10,000 people attending the first demonstration. Johan Remkes, then acting mayor, had therefore banned the demonstration.

Despite this, several thousand people went to the Malieveld anyway. They were permitted to be there for a short period of time. When they were asked to leave, they refused. This led to the police using water cannons and other crowd control measures. There were injuries among the police and the demonstrators, with officers making over 400 arrests.

The second demonstration was expected to draw between 20,000 and 50,000 participants. Partly due to the disturbances at the first protest, Remkes was also allowed to ban this one.

This led to the group’s leader, Willem Engel, inviting others to join him in demonstrating anyway. He was convicted of incitement to participate in an illegal demonstration and later found guilty of sedition in March 2025 for encouraging people to break coronavirus rules on two separate occasions. For these offenses, he was sentenced to 60 hours of community service.

Viruswaarheid ceased activities in November 2022, citing challenges in participating in society without access to financial services. This decision followed the closure of the group's bank account by ING Bank, which led to legal disputes and public scrutiny.