Dozens of demonstrating farmers are blocking the highway at the Azelo junction in Overijssel, where the A35 and A1 intersect. Traffic is completely blocked in both directions by the tractors, with protesters barbecuing on the road. The demonstrators say they will be relieved by a new group at 5 p.m., ANP news agency reports.
According to the ANP, agents are on the scene, but no action is being taken at the moment. A police spokesman tells the news agency that it will wait to act “if necessary”. Police chief Willem Woelders said correctly on Thursday afternoon against it AD that peasants, with their new grim and coercive course, are “transgressing all boundaries of democratic society.”
Woelders also says that farmers who dump junk on highways and set fire to it risk jail time. “Dumping asbestos is a crime with a maximum jail term of 12 years, I wonder if the people who do this realize that.” The police say they are “fully committed” to tracing perpetrators, according to the police chief in the AD, and expects to detain people in the near future. That will take time, he decides.
The police do not have the capacity to intervene preventively, said Woelders a month ago NRC. During crises, the police coordinate nationally, but the regional units have to free up people and resources. “In some regions, the police know more than others, because contact with farmers differs,” said the police chief. Heavy-handed intervention appears to be only a “last resort” in highway blockades.
Also read: Police chief: ‘Police cannot stop farmers’ protest’