An anti-asylum protest in the Netherlands fell in violent chaos on Saturday, while masked protesters clashed with the riot police.
Thousands of demonstrators had gathered for a demonstration of “Els Right” against mass migration in The Hague.
But the meeting became violent, with video images with masked demonstrators who fought with Riot Police, while others threw bottles and stones at officers.
A video that circulated on social media on Saturday showed a police car that broke out in flames, using the police water cannons and tear gas to spread the crowds.
Credit: @bobhgl / x
Some demonstrators blocked highways, while others destroy an office of Democrats 66, a Dutch center left political party.
Saturday's demonstration was organized by a woman known as 'Els Right', a right -wing activist who is prominent on Dutch social media sites. She has publicly distinguished herself of the rioters.
Demonstrants wave flags at the demonstration 'Stand Up For the Dutch' – Josh Walet/Getty Images
The riots were also convicted by Dutch Extreme Right Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders, who had previously rejected an invitation to attend the protests.
“Tackle this scum with an iron fist,” he said in a message on social media site X. “Blocking the highway and violence against the police is completely and completely unacceptable. Idiots.”
Credit: @bobhgl / x
The protests were held around a month before the national elections in the Netherlands, where opinion polls suggest that Mr. Wilders' Freedom party will take first place.
One of the speakers on Saturday's demonstration was a member of a separate right -wing populist party, BVNL, who reportedly complained that his country had become a “multicultural nightmare”.
He told the crowds that “women used to be able to wear short skirts and homosexual men in Amsterdam could still hold onto the street,” De Telegraaf reported.
Police officers are the target if tensions go over in violence – Josh Walet/EPA/Shutterstock
MS Right has 23,000 followers on X and describes itself as a 26-year-old political activist.
In a statement issued after the event in Chaos had descended, the activist said that she was being put to death by the violence and urged her supporters to go home.
Credit: @wurfwain / x
“How terrible I find this! I condemn every form of violence! What happened here is incomprehensible. Police officers were cornered and things were destroyed and set on fire,” she wrote on the social media site.
“I assumed that people came to demonstrate peacefully, but unfortunately, for whatever reason, it turned out to be very different. I regret that it happened this way. If I had known this in advance, I would never have organized it.”
Rob Jetten, the leader of D66, the liberal party whose offices were destroyed, referred to the rioters as “scum”.
“Keep your hands away from political parties. If you think you can intimidate us, good luck. We will never take extremist rioters our beautiful country,” he said.
Just like in the UK, France and Germany, tensions in the Netherlands have risen about the number of asylum seekers that are housed in the country, in addition to housing shortages and the rising costs of living.
