Tuesday

19th Mar 2024

Dutch mayors protest strict lockdown measures

  • Bars, restaurants, museums, and cultural centres have remained closed, while some shops reopened last week (Photo: Mitchel Lensink)
Listen to article

Strict lockdown measures in the Netherlands have pushed a group of 30 mayors to press the national government for a loosening of restrictions.

In an open letter published in De Volkskrant newspaper on Thursday (20 January), they write that a long-term perspective is needed, saying that the national government has supplanted all other problems and interest in society to keep the infection rate low.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

"That is acceptable for a short period, but not after two years," they said.

Since December, when the more infectious Omicron variant led to record-high infection rates, the Netherlands has been in a hard lockdown.

Several other countries in Europe have registered a record number of Covid-19 infections, with Germany, France, and Italy reporting almost 800,000 cases on Tuesday.

But restrictions look increasingly ineffective, and with Omicron seeming less deadly, most EU member states have decided to keep large parts of the economy at least partly open.

Not so in the Netherlands, which maintains among the toughest Covid regimes in the world.

This week, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) reported a record number of 42,000 cases.

But the number of Covid patients in hospitals have dropped below 1,200, down from 2,850 in December.

Last week, some stores were allowed to reopen, but bars, restaurants, museums, and cultural centres have remained closed in the Netherlands.

Some museums have reopened as yoga or hairdressers' studios in protest this week.

A leading centre for public debate in Amsterdam has registered itself as a religious community, which are exempt from tough restrictions.

"Municipal lawyers are now working overtime to find out whether a yoga studio in a museum or a hair salon in a theatre should be allowed or banned under national emergency legislation," the mayors wrote.

The signatories include all the mayors of the top 10 biggest cities, including Femke Halsema, the mayor of Amsterdam.

They wrote most of them will continue to enforce cabinet measures but ask the cabinet to provide restaurants, bars, and cultural institutions with a perspective on reopening.

"We don't want to encourage further chaos, nor do we want to worsen the situation by unequally favouring one industry over the other," they said.

But they warned against what they described as a "repressive" governing style that has pitched citizens and leaders against each other.

And they asked the government to make a proportional trade-off between health effects and "people's private lives and the social and economic fabric of society."

WHO: Omicron to infect over half of Europeans in two months

The World Health Organization said Omicron is likely to infect more than half of the population in Europe within the next two months, threatening healthcare systems. It warned that it is too early to consider Covid as an endemic virus.

EU Parliament set to sue EU Commission over Hungary funds

The European Parliament will likely take the European Commission to court for unblocking more than €10bn in funds for Hungary last December. A final nod of approval is still needed by European Parliament president, Roberta Metsola.

EU Commission clears Poland's access to up to €137bn EU funds

The European Commission has legally paved the way for Poland to access up to €137bn EU funds, following Donald Tusk's government's efforts to strengthen the independence of their judiciary and restore the rule of law in the country.

Opinion

Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers

The UN could launch an independent international investigation into Navalny's killing, akin to investigation I conducted on Jamal Khashoggi's assassination, or on Navalny's Novichok poisoning, in my role as special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, writes the secretary-general of Amnesty International.

Opinion

I'll be honest — Moldova's judicial system isn't fit for EU

To state a plain truth: at present, Moldova does not have a justice system worthy of a EU member state; it is riven with corruption and lax and inconsistent standards, despite previous attempts at reform, writes Moldova's former justice minister.

Latest News

  1. Borrell: 'Israel provoking famine', urges more aid access
  2. Europol: Israel-Gaza galvanising Jihadist recruitment in Europe
  3. EU to agree Israeli-settler blacklist, Borrell says
  4. EU ministers keen to use Russian profits for Ukraine ammo
  5. Call to change EIB defence spending rules hits scepticism
  6. Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers
  7. EU summit, Gaza, Ukraine, reforms in focus this WEEK
  8. The present and future dystopia of political micro-targeting ads

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us