Kyiv.Ukraine.Ukraine Gate – January 3,2022- About 10,000 people protested government measures to combat the coronavirus in Amsterdam on Sunday, as those protests turned into violent clashes with Dutch police.
Many of those gathered in the Museum Square in the center of the city did not respond to the demands of law enforcement agencies to disperse, as a result of which the action escalated into clashes with the police, and special services intervened. According to law enforcement, when several protesters tried to break through the blockade near Museum Square, four security guards were injured.
According to police, 30 protesters were detained. They have been charged with disorderly conduct, ill-treatment or unauthorized possession of weapons. According to local authorities, the situation calmed down in the evening.
Against the demonstrators who refused to leave the Museum Square of Amsterdam, the units of the equestrian police were charged, and used official dogs.
The clashes began in the afternoon. A group of people dressed in all white chanted, “This is not a dictatorship.” The mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, called on the protesters to disperse.
Some of the protesters then marched through the city center to Amsterdam’s Westerpark district, where they took part in a sanctioned rally by the right-wing populist Forum for Democracy party.
Due to the rapid spread of Omicron coronavirus in the Netherlands on December 19, a hard lockdown was introduced, which is expected to last at least until mid-January. This provoked protests.
