Dutch
police clash with anti-immigration protesters in The Hague
Thirty
arrests made and two officers injured as teargas and water cannon deployed
against violent protesters
Agencies
Sat 20
Sep 2025 21.07 BST
Dutch
police have used teargas and a water cannon to disperse violent
anti-immigration protesters in The Hague on Saturday, a local government
spokesperson has said.
Thirty
people have been arrested, and two police officers were injured. Authorities
did not rule out additional arrests in the coming days as they review camera
footage.
Thousands
of people joined a protest organised by a rightwing activist demanding stricter
immigration policies and a clampdown on asylum seekers, just more than a month
before a national election.
Large
groups of protesters, many waving Dutch flags and flags associated with
far-right groups, clashed violently with the police, throwing rocks and
bottles, footage from broadcaster NOS showed.
A police
car was set on fire and a group of protesters briefly blocked a highway near
the site of the demonstration.
Local
media reported that protesters also smashed several windows at the headquarters
of the centre-left D66 party.
“Scum.
You keep your hands off political parties,” the D66 party’s leader, Rob Jetten,
wrote on X. “If you think you can intimidate us, tough luck. We will never let
extremist rioters take our beautiful country away.”
A smaller
group of rioters headed for the Dutch parliament complex, which is fenced off
as it undergoes renovation.
Geert
Wilders, the anti-migration populist politician who won the previous election
in the Netherlands, was invited to speak at the demonstration but did not
attend.
Instead
Wilders, who has retained his lead in opinion polls in the lead-in to the 29
October vote, condemned the violence on X, saying the use of force against
police was “utterly unacceptable”, and calling those involved “idiots” and
“scum”.
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