Relatives of fallen soldiers make an emphatic appeal to farmers to remove the Dutch flags hanging upside down. At least before 4 and 5 May.
In an appeal signed by twenty relatives of Dutch soldiers who died, protesting farmers and civilians are urged to stop dangling the tricolor upside down.
“You hung up thousands of Dutch flags, upside down, as a signal to The Hague. Half of the Netherlands was full. The Hague has seen your flag, heard your voice. But for us, relatives of fallen soldiers, it is painful to see that flag hanging upside down. Our child, our parent, partner, brother/sister came home in a coffin under the same flag. Lost their lives in the service of the Dutch people. For your peace and democracy. It’s been years, but it feels like yesterday to us,” the family members write.
One of them is Greetje Groenbroek, the mother of first-class soldier Henry Hoving (29) from Winschoten, who died in a mortar accident in Mali in 2016. “We got our son home at the time and that flag was on his coffin. That does something to you. And that is not thought about. I find it rather disrespectful to misuse that flag in this way, also to veterans and people who gave their lives for the freedom of others,” she says. “Hence our call to fly normal flags en masse on May 4 and 5.”
I don’t address them
,,When I drive over a viaduct and I see that they are there again en masse with those flags, then I have trouble passing it. You see it a lot in this area. I don’t speak to them, I don’t want to have that confrontation because I’m afraid it will escalate. But I really think it’s a thing. During the last relatives meeting, which we have twice a year, it turned out that many relatives were in the same position. Hence the call.”
She is certainly not anti-farmers or anything like that, says Groenbroek. ,,I understand that dissatisfaction very well, many things go wrong. But do think about what you’re doing with our flag. I suspect it often doesn’t happen consciously, it’s just not thought through properly. And that’s a bad thing.”
Don’t hurt people
Several mayors and also the Frisian Commissioner Arno Brok have since expressed their sympathy to the relatives. They call on residents to remove the inverted flags in view of May 4 and 5. “The effect and power of the signal is over. It cannot be the intention to hurt people”, says Brok at Omrop Fryslân.
To the same channel, Sieta van Keimpema of farmers’ action group Farmers Defense says that he does not feel anything for this. According to her, the protest must continue because nothing has yet turned out for the better for the farmers.