A strong police presence in various towns in the Netherlands seemed to have prevented further unrest on Tuesday evening, 26 after three nights of violent riots which have rocked the country since the establishment of a curfew on Saturday. Many police officers had been deployed in particular in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, fearing the presence of other rioters who had come to challenge the curfew, imposed to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
A “large group of young men” briefly gathered in an area of ​​the Dutch capital, lighting fireworks, police said. The group was quickly dispersed, however, according to Dutch media. In Rotterdam, at least 33 people have been arrested for, among other things, vandalism and violation of the curfew, port city police said on Twitter, but they did not find any major disturbances.
More than 400 people in detention
Several cities had granted additional powers to the police after a new call on social networks to demonstrate Tuesday night against the curfew, the first in the Netherlands since World War II, as the government warned that ‘he would not backtrack on that measure. Dutch police said earlier on Tuesday that they had made at least 184 arrests overnight, bringing the number of people in detention to more than 400 for their participation in the riots.
At least ten police officers had been injured in the latest clashes with rioters, who looted shops and torched cars in several cities including Rotterdam, Amsterdam and The Hague on Monday evening, the worst unrest in the country for four decades.
Curfew maintained
Dutch authorities announced in mid-December a new series of measures to fight Covid-19, the strictest ever imposed since the start of the pandemic in the Netherlands, where more than 13,600 people have died of this disease .
The government said on Tuesday it would not give up the curfew despite the riots, with Prime Minister Mark Rutte urging Twitter to stop “criminal violence”. He had said the day before that “99%” of the Dutch supported the restrictions.
Spoke this morning @ferdgrapperhaus and I with @POL_Korpschef Van Essen on the deployment of the police. The police have our utmost respect and our unconditional support. This criminal violence must stop.
– Mark Rutte (@MinPres) January 26, 2021
Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra also considered that the people behind the riots were not legitimate protesters, saying “it’s the scum that does that”. Justice Minister Ferd Grapperhaus also said the government will maintain the curfew, in effect between 9 p.m. and 4:30 a.m. until at least February 9, deeming the measure necessary to stem the spread of the new coronavirus.

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