The advice on imposing the curfew at the beginning of 2021 was one of the most difficult issues for the Security Council during the corona pandemic. “You lock people up. I can’t describe it any other way. You turn part of society’s day into a prison. Everyone thought back to the years 40-45.”
Jack Mikkers, mayor of Den Bosch and chairman of the Brabant-Noord Safety Region, said this on Monday afternoon during his public hearing for the parliamentary investigation into corona. The 25 safety regions in the Netherlands coordinated the crisis response surrounding corona. The Security Council consists of the chairmen of the security regions.
Riots in several cities
Mikkers called the curfew “a strict measure”. “I felt tension among my colleagues when we talked about this. We struggled with it.” The imposition of the curfew led to riots in several cities, including in Mikker’s own Den Bosch: “I will never forget that evening. I have never felt as lonely as that evening.”
According to him, there was already a flame burning under the skin in society and the curfew provided extra oxygen. “The tension was so great among a group of people that they had to express themselves.” According to Mikkers, “all of us, society and administrators” have fueled the polarization: “It was only about for or against the measures.”
Mikkers supported the curfew “with great reluctance”, but did have doubts: “The effectiveness is based on an estimate, a model, but we did not know whether it would actually turn out that way.” The curfew applied from January 23, 2021 to April 28 that year.
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Parliamentary inquiry corona
Mayor Jack Mikkers had doubts about the curfew but supported it ‘with great reluctance’