Right-wing protesters clashed with riot police in The Hague on Saturday.
Mob, many people waving Dutch flags and flags associated with the far-right group, threw stones and bottles at the police, burning one of the patrol vehicles. Police used tear gas and shells to disperse the crowd in return.
Protesters also temporarily blocked the highway, destroyed the duties of the Centre left party D66, and destroyed several windows, local media reported.
Party leader Rob Jetten wrote about X, “You should take your hands off the political party.”
“A shocking and strange image of shameless violence in the Hague,” caretaker Dutch Prime Minister Dick Shueoff wrote in X, calling the attacks on the police and the D66 office “completely unacceptable,” expressing his confidence that police and prosecutors will arrest and prosecute the assailant.
“There is always room for demonstrations, never because of violence,” he concluded.
Hundreds gathered in Malieveld, The Hague on Saturday after a young woman known as “Els Rechts” (translated into “Els Right”) called social media to protest immigrants and demand stricter asylum laws.
Following the clash, “Els Retcis” quickly condemned the erupting violence.
“I thought people came to demonstrate peacefully, but unfortunately, for some reason it was very different,” she wrote to X, adding that she would not have organized the demonstration if she had known the outcome.
The protest comes just weeks before the Netherlands holds the SNAP election on October 29th. This comes after the collapse of the country’s ruling government after Geert Wilders, the leader of the far-right party for freedom (PVV) withdrew his minister on disagreements over immigration policy.
The Wilders, who refused an invitation to speak at the demonstration, accused the violence of being “unacceptable.”
