The farmers who traveled from the North on the A28 to The Hague yesterday, all received a ticket. The East Netherlands police took the procession off the road at ‘t Harde, and handed out the fines there.
Earlier today, the Northern Netherlands police reported that it still wanted to hand out fines based on images and photos that were taken. This no longer appears to be necessary now that the unit from the eastern Netherlands has already issued a fine for these farmers.
It turned out to be a difficult job for the police of the Northern Netherlands to get the tractor group off the highway. “One of our police cars drove in front of the procession with a ‘follow’ sign on the back. At the exit, the first tractor drove behind him, but the rest of the procession continued,” says the spokesperson. She adds that it was not a police escort.
In recent years, the police have had more experience with tractors on highways and it turns out that it is not easy to get the vehicles off. According to the spokesman, the police are looking at whether there are alternative ways to get a procession off the highway.
When the hikers’ procession moved south, the Northern Netherlands police were already in contact with colleagues in the eastern Netherlands to agree when the tasks would be taken over. “But that is a fluid whole, no exact hectometre marker has been agreed,” says the spokesperson.
The unit of the eastern Netherlands managed to get the procession off the highway at ‘t Harde in Gelderland, where the fines were issued.