Netherlands: Violence Erupts at Anti-Immigration Protest
Deutsche Welle
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An anti-immigration protest in The Hague turned violent on Saturday, just over a month before the Netherlands holds a general election.
Dutch police used tear gas and a water cannon to disperse the crowd, according to a spokesperson for the local government.
The violence erupted at a demonstration organized by a right-wing activist known online as "Els Rechts" in demand of tougher migration policies.
The organizer said she had assumed people would demonstrate peacefully." "If I had known this in advance, I would never have organized it," she said in a post on X.
What else do we know about the protest in The Hague?
Protesters — many of them waving Dutch flags and those associated with far-right groups — threw rocks and bottles at the police, according to footage from Dutch public broadcaster NOS.
Dutch media also showed rioters damaging an office of a centrist political party, D66.
"If you think you can intimidate us, tough luck. We will never let our beautiful country be taken away by extremist troublemakers," the party's leader, Rob Jette, wrote on X.
It is still unclear whether there were any injuries or if anyone was arrested.
Dutch snap election set for October 29
The unrest in The Hague comes as the Netherlands prepares for a snap election next month.
The vote was called after far-right firebrand Geert Wilders, who won the previous election in the country, pulled his party out of the ruling coalition following a row over migration.
In a post on X, Wilders condemned the protesters as thugs.
"Blocking the highway and violence against the police is totally, absolutely unacceptable. Idiots," he wrote online.
This article was originally published on DW.
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