Cabinet calls for more powers for mayors to curb demonstrations

Cabinet ministers have called for mayors to be given more powers to stop protests getting out of hand and tougher sentences to be handed down to rioters.

In recent weeks demonstrations against planned asylum seekers’ centres have turned violent, with protesters throwing fireworks at police, chanting far-right slogans and blocking emergency vehicles.

Last month ail services were disrupted by protesters from Extinction Rebellion who blocked the railway line near Utrecht for several hours by sitting on the tracks with an anti-genocide banner. Damage has also been caused to university buildings during occupations by pro-Palestinian protest groups.

Home affairs minister Pieter Heerma and justice minister David van Weel said the law on demonstrations should be revised to allow mayors to take preventive action and reduce the risk of violence.

Mayors should be given specific emergency powers to deal with demonstrations while they are ongoing, such as ordering protesters to move to a different location, the ministers wrote in a letter to parliament.

“The right to protest is a basic right and a fundamental part of our democracy,” they wrote.

“In the last 10 years the number of demonstrations has more than tripled. Fortunately the vast majority of demonstrations take place without incidents, but the increase in the number of demonstrations has also meant an increase, in absolute numbers, in demonstrations with incidents.”

Face coverings

Heerma said he and Van Weel were responding to an underlying trend of protests becoming more intense and confrontational rather the events of recent months.

“This is a debate that has been going on for several years in which we have unfortunately seen a small percentage of demonstrations in various places becoming increasingly unruly,” Heerma said.

The ministers appeared to pull back from earlier plans to ban face coverings at demonstrations, noting that some MPs supported the idea but others said it would have a “chilling effect” on the right to protest.

Instead they suggested imposing heavier sentences on rioters who covered their faces while committing offences of violence at public protests.