Author Archives: Niki

After three nights of rioting (Saturday, Sunday and Monday) things were more peaceful last night. Less unrest on fourth night of curfew; 131 arrested from nltimes.nl. There was still some unrest in Rotterdam – 81 of the 131 arrests yesterday were there – but police said there was a major difference between the first three nights and yesterday evening.

There were rumors that The Hague’s city centre would be a gathering point for rioters last night, but things remained quieter. See also Rustige avond tot dusver in de regio Haaglanden (Peaceful evening for the moment in The Hague region) from regio15.nl in Dutch. It includes pictures of shop owners taking precautions to protect their shops from plunderers and secure entrances and outdoor furniture. There are also pictures of the massive police presence in the Grote Marktstraat, the heart of the city centre. Around 20:00 or a bit before police started telling everyone to leave the area immediately or risk being arrested (the city passed a temporary emergency order allowing this). Better safe than sorry, after seeing some of the damage done in the three days before that… But in the end things remained quiet.

No need to bring in army to quell riots, Rutte tells MPs during debate from dutchnews.nl. For the moment police (and riot police which fall under Defense) have been able to handle the situation. Perhaps not as fast as the cities wanted, though.

In other news:

Registration cards of Dutch Holocaust victims to go on display from theguardian.com. From the article: “The Dutch Red Cross has passed ownership of the records to the Jewish Cultural Quarter of Amsterdam, an umbrella organisation of several institutions, including the Dutch National Holocaust Museum.”

Dutch warehouse boom as UK firms forced to invest aboard also from theguardian.com

Yesterday I mentioned that during the first night of the curfew (Saturday until Sunday) there were incidents in two small Dutch towns, Urk and Stein. There were a few other minor skirmishes reported, but nothing too crazy.

And then there was yesterday.

There were rumors that Eindhoven and Amsterdam would see some unrest in the afternoon, but things got worse later in the evening. Curfew riots in at least 10 municipalities; 190 arrested in Amsterdam from nltimes.nl. Including a group of rioters who tried to force their way into a hospital in Enschede (?! Why!). Luckily they weren’t successful.

Most of the damage was to the train station in Eindhoven. Check out this video at The Guardian:
Anti-lockdown rioters clash with Dutch police in the Netherlands. And seriously, why do train station pianos always get trashed?

The news isn’t all bad though. Here’s a video of residents in Eindhoven helping with clean up this morning:

“Dozens of Eindhoven residents armed with brooms arrived at the Station plaza this morning to help clean up the damage after yesterday’s riots. ‘Extremely sad” says one of the volunteers.”

We’ll see what tonight brings. There are rumors that there will be more rioting tonight. My plan: stay inside (there IS a curfew after all, people!) and drink some hot chocolate. What more could you want?

As noted, the Netherlands currently has a curfew from 21:00 to 04:30 every day through 9 February. Last night there were 3,600 fines issued and 25 arrests (article from nos.nl in Dutch, with a lot more detail than the English language articles which have been posted so far today).

The YouTube video at the bottom of the linked article is funny. You see some police canvassing the area for anyone breaking the curfew when a cyclist comes into view. You see him stop for a moment and try to think about what he can do. Can he turn around? Should he still try to go past? Eventually he decides to cross to the other side of the street and then make a break for it. The cyclist ignores a police officer’s request to stop. Of course the police agent has a motorcycle with him, so he simply gets on that and chases after the cyclist (off frame, unfortunately).

As noted in the article above, there was also unrest in a small town name Urk. It is a deeply religious town known for its fishing trade. About 96% of the 20,000 residents are protestant. There was also unrest in Urk in November and December. This time the youth set a corona test street located in the harbor on fire. The only other major incident played out in a small town called Stein, close to the Belgium border, with minor protests also occurring in Amsterdam and Amersfoort.

Amsterdam en Eindhoven nemen maatregelen vanwege signalen gewelddadig protest, also from nos.nl in Dutch. The area around Museumplein in Amsterdam and Eindhoven’s city centre have been labeled as “safety risk areas” today so that police need less cause to search anyone in the area. This step has been taken because there are rumors that both places will see illegal protests this afternoon.

In beeld: Nederland uitgestorven door avondklok from nos.nl in Dutch. The article shows images of a very empty, quiet Netherlands last night after the curfew came into effect. I especially like the aerial photos.

In Utrecht klinkt vanaf morgen de avondklok elke dag letterlijk from rtvutrecht.nl in Dutch. The article talks about a church in Utrecht’s city centre. The church bells ring at 21:55 every night. Originally this was to signal that the city gates were about to close for the evening, but this tradition has persisted even in modern times. Now the bells will ring at 20:55 every night, to warn residents that the curfew is about to begin.

A curfew has been announced from 20:30 to 04:30, starting either Saturday or Sunday depending on a final vote by the Dutch parliament. For the moment the curfew will last until 9 February. Some of the exceptions to the curfew include essential workers (who have a signed declaration from their employer), persons seeking medical assistance for a person or an animal, caretakers and meal delivery workers with a declaration from their employer. You can also let your dog out, but you need to do it alone and the dog must be leashed.

Coronavirus in the Netherlands: What you need to know (January 20) from dutchnews.nl

Oh, and you see how I said the curfew doesn’t apply to meal delivery workers? Marktplaats bans sales of delivery worker apparel ahead of curfew from nltimes.nl. Markplaats is like a Dutch eBay. Apparently people were already selling (and buying) clothes to make it look like they had a legitimate reason to be outside during the curfew.

Other measures include:

• all flights to the United Kingdom, South Africa and all South American countries will be banned until required quarantine procedures can be put into place, which might take up to four weeks
• all travelers by boat and plane must have taken a fast test within four hours of their flight departing, in addition to the previously required PCR test within 72 hours
• all travelers by boat and plane are required to quarantine for 10 days, but they can take a test after 5 days
• only one house guest over the age of 13 is allowed per 24 hours. Previously 2 guests were allowed.
• only 50 guests are allowed by a funeral (instead of the previous 100 guests)

The goal of the extra measures is to prepare for the scenario where the “British” variant is more dominant in the Netherlands, to prevent the situation that is currently happening in the United Kingdom. Another goal is to force the number of cases down even faster to allow schools to hopefully re-open on 8 February.

In other news:

• dinner today was sauerkraut (English Wikipedia), made by Marco’s mom. Very tasty – thank you!
• Marco and I forgot to take photos of the sauerkraut because we were busy watching the US inauguration of Joe Biden on CNN International. Fun fact as told by Marco: here in the Netherlands, CNN became widespread in the Netherlands during the Gulf War in the early 1990s. After the war ended the channel was still offered by most Dutch television providers, through today.