Foto’s

Okay – it wasn’t exactly an invasion. Not like last time anyway, when farmers in trackers stormed the Malieveld and destroyed the grass. More like a small skirmish. The Dutch government has stated that if cows are fed cattle feed that is less protein rich there will be less nitrogen released which will allow the construction sector to build new homes (aka one sector makes less nitrogen pollution to allow another sector to keep polluting).

The farmers were understandably less than thrilled about that plan so they drove their tractors to The Hague to protest outside of the Binnenhof during yesterday’s vote. In the end the vote was delayed until 01:30 early Friday morning, and then delayed again to 03:30. See also Central The Hague sealed off to angry farmers as MPs vote to cut protein in animal feed from dutchnews.nl.

The government ultimately decided to go ahead with the plan to reduce protein in the cattle feed. In an attempt to prevent the chaos that happened last October, the military was called in to block off certain streets so that tractors wouldn’t disrupt the city too much today.

I decided to take a quick walk over to the Malieveld this afternoon to see what was going on. The only thing I found was a van from the national public television company (NOS) waiting for something newsworthy to happen. But by this point all of the farmers were gone, so they were just standing around. Poor NOS reporters!

If you are interested in more photos check out the article Boeren protesteren tegen de voermaatregel from regio15.nl (Farmers protest against the feed measure).

In previous years I have posted about the Veteran’s Day activities in The Hague – generally there is a parade and events at the Malieveld. However, things are different this year due to the corona crisis. But I was able to spot a veteran being interviewed at the Malieveld yesterday:

It’s possible the interview will show up in a piece on the national broadcast newschannel (NOS) today or perhaps a short-lived TV commercial.

Oh, and I was nice enough to crop the horse… leavings… out of the photo. Welcome to The Netherlands. Occasionally mounted police patrol the city, especially during events like the should-not-have-been-held demonstration last weekend on the Malieveld. Or maybe it was from a Black Lives Matter demonstration the week before that. But then no one cleans up after the police horses, so the excrement sits there for weeks.

And speaking of that should-not-have-been-held demonstration from last week: the group requested again to hold a demonstration tomorrow at the Malieveld but they were again denied by the mayor of The Hague – see this article at nltimes.nl. The leader said that he would still come as an individual (not a demonstrator) and asked other demonstrators to come as “individuals” as well.

Maybe they should bring picnic baskets? Considering there were over 400 arrests last Sunday, it looks like it will again be interesting in The Hague tomorrow…

Edited to add: the leader is now saying that he will no longer come to the Malieveld and he requests that other demonstrators also do not come (article in Dutch at nos.nl).