New evening of anti-containment riots in the Netherlands

The Netherlands experienced on the night of Monday 25 to Tuesday 26 January a second outbreak of violence orchestrated by opponents of the curfew supposed to contain the coronavirus epidemic.

The main cities Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, but also other localities (Amersfoort, Geleen, Den Bosch, Haarlem ...): the curfew imposed on the Netherlands this weekend for the first time in the country since the Second World War has given rise to riots, between confrontations of protesters with the police and acts of vandalism against businesses.

As of 10 p.m. GMT on Monday, more than 70 people had been arrested, according to Dutch public television NOS. On Monday evening, the mayors of several cities across the country announced that they would take emergency measures to try to prevent further unrest. That of Rotterdam, for example, Ahmed Aboutaleb, issued a decree authorizing the police to increase the arrests.

"Not for laughs"

Already the night before, the police had arrested 250 people during similar riots in several cities. Prime Minister Mark Rutte condemned "criminal violence", saying it was "the worst riots in forty years". "It has nothing to do with the struggle for freedom. We do not take all these measures for fun. We do it because we are fighting the virus and it is for the moment the virus which takes our freedom from us" , added the head of government.

A similar grumbling against the restrictions also emerged on Monday in Tripoli, the large city in northern Lebanon, where security forces had to contain young protesters who targeted the headquarters of local authorities. The Lebanese Red Cross has reported more than 30 injured. The country has extended strict containment until February 8.

The day before, in a district of Tel Aviv in Israel, clashes had opposed the police to ultra-Orthodox Jews protesting against the confinement. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the "heavy handedness" used by the police, which arrested 13 people.