The last few people hanging around the entrance to the reception location in the partly vacant town hall in Loosdrecht were ordered by the police to leave the area just before half past 11 on Tuesday evening. Earlier in the evening, a fire broke out during a demonstration against the newly arrived asylum seekers.
Fireworks flares were thrown into the dry vegetation next to the building. Mayor Mark Verheijen then issued an emergency order due to “serious disturbances”. The area is off-limits until at least Wednesday morning.
Local resident Bart still walks through the street. He walks dog Jax. “Yes, I was there tonight, just like every other week,” says Bart, who does not want his surname to be in the newspaper. “There have been peaceful demonstrations for three weeks now. Not with a hundred people, as I read, but sometimes with more than a thousand.”
It was not completely peaceful. The Mobile Unit has been active in Loosdrecht several times in the past three weeks, just like on Tuesday evening. In a response, PRO leader Jesse Klaver calls the riots “the result of incitement by extreme right-wing groups.” For example, Defend Netherlands has already called for demonstrations twice. But Bart sees it differently. “I live and work in the village. I know the people, they are from here. They are concerned and do not feel heard by the mayor.”
While Bart is talking, two young enforcers arrive. The enforcer and Bart briefly discuss the past hours. “Those men,” says Bart about the asylum seekers, “made this gesture to the demonstrators.” He takes one hand off the belt and runs it across his throat. “Of course people will go crazy.” The enforcer nods. “They shouldn’t do that either.”
Remains of the demonstration
The police vans drive back and forth, even now that there is hardly anyone on the street anymore. One arrest has been made, for arson. Remnants of the demonstration lie on the street. There are signs on the fence of the town hall. “Loosdrecht is ours, forever. We protect with pride & full fight,” it says. There are also white spray carnations attached to the bars, hung during a ‘women’s march’.
During these marches, a relatively new phenomenon, women demonstrate peacefully and with flowers against the arrival of asylum seekers. “But the idea that women have a lot to fear from migrants is of course not unknown,” said media scientist Iris Beau Segers. De Volkskrant. “It has been spread by far-right politicians for more than 25 years.” FVD leader Lidewij de Vos was also present at one of the women’s marches in Loosdrecht.
It starts to rain when an officer asks if Bart also wants to leave the street. “Just come along,” he says. At the dining table, under a portrait of his three young children, he explains where the anger comes from. He remembers well how it felt when a few weeks ago on Friday a letter from the municipality suddenly arrived on the mat, with the message that 110 single men would be accommodated in the partly vacant town hall.
That letter did not go to all 9,000 residents of the village. “Then the panic broke out. Then it got really close.” Bart went to the walk-in evening. “I asked the mayor: who will protect me and who is dear to me?” According to Bart, there was no answer. The mayor had to continue, first to the safety triangle and then on to News hour.
Demonstrators walk during a protest march towards the current town hall, where 70 asylum seekers are temporarily sheltered.
Photo Remko de Waal / ANP
‘It is not inconceivable that the fire brigade itself also demonstrated’
The television is on in the background: Beau van Erven-Dorens. Earlier in the evening he talked about his “village,” says Bart. “Then it is about Geert Wilders this, Geert Wilders that. But that is not the point, we are not racists. That is framing.” I’m not voting for him either, he says. “We are not angry because refugees are coming, but because there are so many single men. Now we feel cornered, the fuse has been shortened.”
Bart shows videos of the evening on his phone, shared in the group app ‘Stand up for Loosdrecht’. The images show how the street turns into a red sea due to torches, familiar from football stadiums. One of those torches ended up on the roof, another in the bushes. The flames just don’t touch the building.
Minister David van Weel (Justice and Security, VVD) calls it “unacceptable” that the fire brigade was initially stopped by the crowd. “Well,” says Bart: “I can tell you, the fire brigade here is voluntary. It is not inconceivable that some of the men in the car have also demonstrated themselves.” In addition, the street was completely full. “So what was not allowed through? Yes, no space was made, that’s right.”
Prime Minister Rob Jetten calls the violence from Aruba, where he is visiting, unacceptable. “Nothing is understandable about this,” he told the ANP. He also expresses support for the “shocked asylum seekers”. In the end, 70, not 110, arrived on Tuesday. Board chairman Frank Candel, of the Council for Refugees, tells ANP that fear of refugees is growing due to these types of demonstrations, while society is “slowly becoming more afraid of demonstrators who do not shy away from the worst violence.” That fear is real, he says.
The street is empty, it is quiet. Until a passing car honks long and loudly as it passes the town hall. Loosdrecht will resist as long as necessary, Bart thinks, until the plan goes back to the drawing board. “I’ll be there again tomorrow. The rest of the village too.”
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