“Amsterdammers are being pushed aside to make room for yuppies and expats”

The squatters of the business premises on Kinkerstraat in Amsterdam-West hope to be able to stay there for a longer period of time. They deliberately squatted the building just before the municipal elections.

With the squatting campaign they hope to put pressure on political parties. “The prices here are skyrocketing,” says one of them. “So many people who were born and raised here are pushed to the outskirts of the city or further afield to make room for yuppies and expats.”

The group calls itself Mokum Kraakt. Part of the squatters collective was last year in the squatted former hotel on Amsterdam’s Marnixstraat, which was eventually vacated by the police. “The right of residence weighs more heavily for us than someone else’s property right, who therefore does nothing with it. That’s what it’s about.”

They say that local residents have told that the building has been empty for one or even several years. The public prosecutor is still waiting with a decision on a possible eviction until the owner of the property has made a report.

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