From protest to revolt. In Rotterdam the situation worsened in a few hours yesterday during the demonstration against the restrictive measures decided by the Dutch government to deal with the coronavirus epidemic. Several cars were set on fire, various objects were thrown at law enforcement, and police responded by using a water cannon to disperse the crowd and firing warning shots. Some of these have caused injuries, seven confirmed ones.
The anger of hundreds of people who gathered in the city center was the restoration of the partial lockdown last week. During the march, to the cry of "freedom", fireworks were set off and a police car was set on fire, others were damaged.
Gerrit van de Kamp, president of the union, explained that "we will have to investigate what exactly happened here. But it is clear that the limit has been reached. We cannot continue on this path. We have been saying for some time that this is no longer possible" and he also condemned the "extreme violence" of certain groups who "simply wanted to get things out of hand".
The Netherlands was the first country in Europe to restore a partial lockdown after infections from Covid rose to record levels.
(Unioneonline / ss)
