Most of the approximately thirty suspects arrested in the northern Netherlands during the farmer’s protests are not farmers themselves. According to the Public Prosecution Service, the group mainly consists of sympathizers: friends, relatives, contractors or people who sometimes come to a farm for work.
“If I had to look for a general kind of explanation, it would be there: in a great dissatisfaction that prevails in society. Whether you become a very specific victim of this yourself or whether you just feel an enormous sympathy for the person who becomes a victim of that, or simply because you like to demonstrate and you always raise your hand. Those are all factors that can play a role,” said the officer. He also points to the role of social media.
The Public Prosecution Service also saw some of the suspects at corona demonstrations, Hoekman reports.
Last summer there were weeks of farmers’ protests, including highway blockades and waste dumping. More than a hundred people have been arrested throughout the country, of whom around thirty in Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe.