Inverted flags, peasant scarves and texts such as ‘put that squirt up your ass’. That can be seen every working day for 54 days from the John F. Kennedylaan in Eindhoven. The demonstrators are standing there between six and eight o’clock in the evening on a viaduct to express their displeasure against the cabinet, mayor Dijsselbloem and what they believe to be the conspiracy of the World Economic Forum.
“Finally, we’ve been waiting for Omroep Brabant, the Eindhovens Dagblad or Studio040 for 54 days,” is the first reaction of the protesters when they see our reporter approaching.
Anyone who enters Eindhoven via the A50 in the evening has seen Dutch flags fluttering in reverse since 11 July and Eindhoven residents busy waving a red handkerchief. Sander Strootman spoke on behalf of the eleven demonstrators on Thursday evening. “We have realized that the Netherlands is no longer a democracy. They are destroying our entire country with nitrogen and CO2 fairy tales.”
“We just see that top-down control of the WHO and the RIVM.”
Strootman stands on the bridge with a peasant scarf around his neck. But it’s not just about the farmers. “We are against the World Economic Form. And we think mayor Dijsselbloem (of Eindhoven, ed.) is also involved. The farmers are an important part, they just want to get rid of the farmers and turn the Netherlands into a city state.”
Strootman thinks it is important to emphasize that none of the protesters have been vaccinated. “We don’t believe in it at all. We just see that top-down control of the WHO and the RIVM.” According to him, corona is only there to suppress the Dutch and all crises are there to make citizens dependent on the government and to keep us under control.
Strootman is not an unknown protester, by the way. He was also one of the leaders during the yellow vest protests in Eindhoven. In his own words, he stood up against poverty and injustice. But it didn’t stop at Eindhoven, he also demonstrated in Brussels and Paris. During the corona crisis, Strootman proudly posted a video on his social media in which he said that he had just called a Jumbo employee because he had to wear a mouth cap.
Read on after this 2019 tweet from Strootman.
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Back to Kennedylaan. As soon as the protesters start to wave, a honk is heard. According to Sander Strootman, they mainly receive support from the people of Eindhoven. “One in fifty gives a thumbs down or even a middle finger, which is less. But look, most of them wave back and are happy with us.” There is indeed more honking than a middle finger, but most passers-by ignore the whole protest.
“First a new cabinet and a new king, or the whole king gone.”
“We will keep it going for as long as it is necessary”, says an Eindhoven resident who is there almost every day. “I just work during the day. Come home at six, throw in some food, and ten minutes later I’m here. And I really don’t feel like it every day, but I do it for my freedom, for our freedom.”
When asked when they will stop, a protester responds: “If this government is gone, then I will leave. First a new cabinet and a new king, or that whole king gone, just a free country.”
Strootman adds: “It is much bigger than that. It is the EU, the IMF (International Monetary Fund, ed.). They just want some sort of world order and the Netherlands must become an important part of that.”
According to the demonstrators, they are already awake and now the rest must also wake up and investigate what it really is. Whose deed.
