On Saturday, Dutch police detained over 1,500 individuals following a climate protest by Extinction Rebellion activists in The Hague. According to a police press release, the activists descended upon the Utrechtsebaan (A12) motorway after riot police prevented them from reaching “the underpass that they wanted to block.” The demonstrators were protesting in front of the police line, prompting officers to repeatedly ask them to leave. Within 15 minutes, police allegedly deployed water cannons, despite no reported dangerous or threatening situations. Protesters were seen on social media prepared for the water cannon, many dressed in swimsuits and raincoats. Raki Ap, a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion Netherlands, said that thousands of people had protested on and next to the A12 with one demand to stop fossil fuel subsidies.
Dutch actress Carice Van Houten, known for her role as Melisandre on “Game of Thrones,” was reportedly hit by a water cannon and arrested by police at the demonstration, according to Dutch public broadcaster NOS. Van Houten had posted an Instagram video earlier in the day of musicians playing Beethoven in what she called a “peaceful and musical protest.”
The majority of those detained, a total of 1,539 people, were arrested for violating the Public Demonstrations Act. The Public Prosecution Service will not pursue criminal action, however, as this is considered only a minor offense under Dutch law. The rest of those arrested were taken into custody for other criminal offences, including obstructing, blocking, vandalism, and insulting. One person was arrested for resisting arrest resulting in an injury, and these cases remain under review by police.
These arrests in The Netherlands follow the recent actions of German authorities, who conducted a series of raids against Last Generation, a comparable climate activist group. The Prosecutor General’s Office in Munich said it had initiated a preliminary investigation, "due to numerous criminal complaints from the population" against seven defendants aged 22 to 38 years, on the charge of forming or supporting a criminal organization. While some applaud the authorities' crackdown on the climate activists, others have noted concerns about blanket assumptions of criminality when it comes to environmental protests.