‘Elsfest’ ends on riots: water cannons and burning police cars around the Malieveld

Els Right, which is actually called Els Noort, on the stage on the north side of the Malieveld in The Hague, the demonstrators once again joined peaceful protest. “Guys, you behave, we are the Netherlands on the right. Keep it peacefully and stick to the rules,” she shouts in the microphone.

But a hundred meters away, under the trees of the Koekamplaan that surrounded the most popular demonstration field in the Netherlands, the war between what must go for ‘right of the Netherlands’ and the police are in full swing. Hundreds of the black -dressed demonstrators throw stones, branches, cans, fences and everything they can find to the massively present officers. In the meantime, they channel ‘AZC, gone with it’, they sing the Wilhelmus, and they are busy filming each other and the mobile unity.

Other attempts from the organization to bring this ‘Elsfest’ – the entry of Els on the right as a national political phenomenon – to calm down. The fighting demonstrators are not at all interested in what Els’ ‘dear friend’ Yasmina Jimenez of the Political Party Interest of Nissewaard has to say on stage about the asylum problems in Voorne-Putten. And the thousands of attendees are also not calm about the music (Coldplay, ‘Eye of the Tiger’ of Survivor).

‘PVV girl’

Els Noort (26) describes herself on her slick website As a “pronounced Christian and legal oriented voice that stands up for Dutch values, safety and traditions.” She has been politically active for years, on the right.

Noort became politically interested through the former SGP MP Roelof Bisschop, the director of the Reformed Wartburg college in Rotterdam where she went to school. In 2019 she was by the Reformational newspaper described as “PVV girl Els”, “a household name within the PVV and beyond”. She also flirted with Forum for Democracy. She set off for the party with Thierry Baudet in 2020 and became a member of Forum. Nowadays she says she again votes PVV, partly because, according to a message, she is “real pro-Israel”.

To her disappointment, her political idols Wilders and Baudet did not respond to her invitation to come and speak at the Elsfest. They did not give one reason, she tells the small group of demonstrators around 2.15 pm that is still on the Malieveld in front of her stage. The majority of the other people present is either further riots, or stands with his back to Els watching the fights.

Prince

The beginning was quiet, Saturday afternoon. At 12.30 the Malieveld slowly filled with a colorful mix protesters, one with a large cross for the murdered American activist Charlie Kirk, the other with a Trump cap on or with a jacket on which ‘White Power Scheveningen’ is on. Almost everyone has a flag with them. Those who have forgotten it can quickly purchase the Dutch tricolor or a prince flag with VOC print from a trader near the stage.

Zoom in

Maria from Hoorn (“Rather not a last name, my cousins ​​are well -known business people”) had her daughter dropped by the Malieveld. She is wearing shiny pants and holds her umbrella and a small Dutch flag well. She is nervous. “I almost never demonstrate, only during Corona I did that,” she says. “That was very violent, I hope we keep it calm today.”

Her street ‘is flooded with status holders’, her daughter cannot find a house because she is ‘sewn by her landlord, a dentist’, she ‘ringed the bell everywhere’, but nobody listens to her. Then a group of boys walk along, who call ‘sieg salvation’ and bring the Hitler salute. They did not understand, Maria and the bystanders sigh.

To the A12

The football hooligans who gathered at the start of the demonstration on the edge of the Malieveld appear to have their own plans with the Elsfest. When Els opens the demonstration at 1 p.m. with a call not to stab fireworks, they walk en masse towards the stage – with smoke pots and flares.

Then it is Wybren’s turn of Haga, the only national politician who does speak at the Elsfest. With the dictation of a real estate man, he calls on the audience to make his interests of the Netherlands big, but in the meantime the hooligans are leaving for the A12. They want, it sounds, “just like Extinction Rebellion,” occupying the highway. “Guys, don’t do it, they do things like that on the left,” Van Haga still shouts – but he also has the troops in his hand.

What follows is an almost two -hour ballet between rioters and the police, along the edges of the Malieveld. The water cannon is used, tear gas is shot and two police cars are flying on fire. The hooligans pose with ‘Defend NetherlandsFlags for one of the burning cars, which is then thrown over under loud cheers.

“Purpose beyond”

If the battles are moving to the podium of Els on the right against three, the triangle in The Hague has had enough. “Guys, we have to stop,” it is announced. “Think of Els, go home peacefully.”

Els itself has already been removed and leaves shortly thereafter know through x That she regrets the Elsfest: “If I had known this in advance, I would never have organized this.” The rioters misunderstood her mission, says Els: “The people who have misbehaved have completely ignored the demonstration.”

Jenny (63) and her brother from Emmen, a year older, are meanwhile be amazed in front of the stage. It is the first time ever that they have started demonstrating, they say. And then this. They do not make an illusion about the reporting of the meeting. “That left-wing Kut-Nos is just talking about the rioters,” she says. “And not about Els.”

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