Political leaders and local officials in the Netherlands have condemned as “criminals” and “scum” the rioters who clashed with police during violent protests at the weekend against the country’s first nationwide curfew since the second world war.
More than 240 people were arrested as police used teargas and water cannon to disperse crowds of several hundred protesters in Amsterdam and Eindhoven on Sunday. Trouble also flared in a dozen other towns across the country.
“It’s unacceptable,” the prime minister, Mark Rutte, said on Monday. “This has nothing to do with protesting. It is criminal violence and that’s how we’ll treat it.” He said the 9pm curfew introduced on Saturday was necessary and would remain in place.
Eindhoven was worst hit by the unrest, with rioters setting fire to cars, smashing windows, throwing rocks and fireworks at police, and looting a supermarket and other shops. The local mayor, John Jorritsma, said his city was “crying, and so am I”.
Jorritsma called the rioters “scum of the earth”, adding that he was “afraid that if we continue down this path we will be on our way to civil war”. When police said the protesters were violating lockdown rules, “they took weapons out of their pockets and immediately attacked the police,” Jorritsma said.
Other officials said the violence was not caused by people concerned primarily about their civil liberties. “These demonstrations are being hijacked by people who only want one thing, and that is to riot,” said the Nijmegen mayor, Hubert Bruls. “This is not demonstrating. These are coronavirus hooligans.”
More than 50 people were arrested in Eindhoven, police said, while in Amsterdam about 190 rioters were detained after police deployed water cannon, dogs and officers on horseback during a banned demonstration on the city’s Museumplein.
Military police were sent as reinforcements to at least two towns. In the eastern city of Enschede, rioters threw rocks at the windows of a hospital, and on Saturday night youths in the fishing village of Urk set fire to a coronavirus test centre.
The police trade union, NPB, said there could be more trouble ahead as people grow increasingly frustrated with the country’s months-long lockdown. “We haven’t seen so much violence in 40 years,” said one union official, Koen Simmers.
Rutte and his cabinet resigned on 22 January over a child benefits scandal in which more than 20,000 families were wrongly accused of fraud by the tax office, but they continue to govern in a caretaker capacity until elections scheduled for 17 March.
Schools and non-essential shops have been closed in the Netherlands since mid-December, and bars and restaurants were closed in October. The curfew was added because of fears over the more contagious British variant of the virus.
People who violate the 9pm to 4.30am curfew face a €95 fine. There are exemptions, in particular for people attending funerals or having to work, but they must present a certificate.
Besides the curfew, Rutte also announced last week a ban on flights from Britain, South Africa and South America, and lowered the number of guests allowed into people’s homes to one, from the previous limit of two.
“There is absolutely no excuse” for the rioting, the overseas development minister, Sigrid Kaag, told Dutch television on Monday. “This is violence, and I hope the police track down all these people and that there are heavy punishments.”