The Police have used water cannons to dissolve the climate activists who have cut the A-12 motorway near The Hague this Saturday to protest the climate crisis. One of the calling groups, Extinction Rebellion, has ensured that some 3,000 people have participated in the concentration.
Hundreds of ecologists were detained and transferred in police buses after the eviction and the Firefighters have set up a tent with dry clothes and toilets to carry out medical tests on the evicted activists to avoid possible cases of hypothermia, the municipal authorities have reported, cited by the Dutch News portal.
The director of Greenpeace Netherlands, Andy Palmen, has criticized the use of water cannons as “unacceptable”. “It does not fit with the concept of a city that advocates peace and freedom,” he has argued.
The A-12 motorway was completely closed to traffic early on Saturday afternoon, at the start of the environmentalists’ action, but by 2:00 p.m. it was partially reopened.
The City Council had not authorized the demonstration and had summoned the activists to demonstrate in the Koekamp park, near the main train station of the city.
Meanwhile, thousands of farmers have demonstrated in the Zuiderpark to protest against the government’s nitrogen policy and various recent scandals. The demonstrators have carried inverted country flags, a symbol of the protests, and heart-shaped balloons. Among the speakers in the speeches were far-right leaders Geert Wilders and Thierry Baudet.
Europa Press