Anti-lockdown protests in the Netherlands continued into a third night on Monday evening, as riot police were called out to cities across the country following the a new government decree for a 9pm curfew, supposedly in order stop the spread of a ‘new variant’ of coronavirus.
Police chief Willem Woelders told current affairs TV program Nieuwsuur, “Things were relatively quiet until 7.30pm, but then all hell broke loose.”
It is the first such curfew imposed in the country since the Nazi occupation during World War II.
At least 151 people were arrested last night, according to Dutch police.
Angry protesters also torched a mobile COVID testing facility over the weekend.
Anti-lockdown rioters in the Netherlands burned down a #Covid19 test facility and clashed violently with police on Sunday.
Bloomberg's @DBaazil explains what happened #avondklokrellen pic.twitter.com/lLpUyqJNiP
— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) January 26, 2021
In Rotterdam, the mayor invoked new ’emergency powers’ and summarily deployed riot police and water cannons in an attempt to quell unrest.
According to reports from Dutch News, “In Haarlem and Rotterdam police threatened to use tear gas to break up the crowds, and extra riot police were drafted in, Woelders said. In Amersfoort, fireworks were thrown at police and there were also problems in Den Bosch, where a group of up to 150 youngsters had gathered in defiance of the 9pm curfew, and a Jumbo supermarket was plundered.”
Video footage of angry youth taking to the streets last night:
Curfews have been imposed in The Netherlands for the first time since WWII.
And the unrest is honestly quite frightening. #avondklokrellen pic.twitter.com/XGrfKticmH
— Amanda Marochko (@Marochko) January 25, 2021
In Amsterdam and Eindhoven, riot police and tear gas were deployed and some 300 people were arrested in an effort to disperse the demonstrators.
According to Dutch Prime minister Mark Rutte has dismissed the protestors as outliers which followed on from organized anti-lockdown protests which were happening across the country over the weekend.
Rutte insists that 99% of people are ‘complying’ with central government diktats on the new lockdown and the 9pm curfew which came into effect Saturday.
“This has nothing to do with protesting: it is criminal violence and that is how we will treat it,” said Rutte.
However, Rutte is basing the entire premise for a renewed lockdown and new curfew on shaky claims coming out of the UK that there is a new ‘more dangerous’ and ‘more transmissible’ so-called “variant” mutation of coronavirus – despite the fact the UK government has produced no scientific evidence which can say it is either more deadly or more transmissible.
According leading American microbiologist Prof. Vincent R. Racaniello from Columbia University, hysteria around the ‘new variant’ is built on hype, and explained how most viral mutations and ‘variants’ are of very little consequence, saying that wild claims being made by UK and other European officials that it’s ‘more transmissible’ are not supported by any real scientific data.
Despite the lack of evidence, UK and European government are still determined to use the ‘variant’ narrative in order to further strangle their economies and societies through reactionary lockdown measures.
STAY TUNED FOR UPDATES.
READ MORE COVID NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire COVID-19 Files
PLEASE HELP SUPPORT OUR WINTER FUNDRAISING DRIVE HERE