Dutch police arrested nearly three thousand militant climate activists as they tried to disrupt nationwide traffic over the weekend. The protesters, led by Extinction Rebellion and other climate extremist groups, were angered at government subsidies on fossil fuel as Europe faces record inflation in the wake of the Ukraine war.
“Climate activists blocked a Dutch highway on Saturday in anger at billions of euros in government subsidies for industries that use oil, coal and gas,” the French TV channel Euronews reported. “The protesters — from Extinction Rebellion, Greenpeace and other organisations — broke through a police barrier on Saturday morning and sat on a main road in The Hague heading to the temporary venue for the lower house of parliament.”
Many agitators took their children to the protests — in one case, even a kid as young as six. The police referred the detained children to the country’s domestic abuse watchdog. The referral apparently upset some of the parents who dragged minors to the protests, a report on the Dutch News website suggests.
The climate militants vowed to continue their protests if the demands were not met. “They threatened to stay until the subsidies are lifted, and to come back every day if the police remove them,” the Associated Press noted.
Germany’s state-owned DW TV reported:
Police in the Netherlands detained thousands of climate activists over the weekend after they shut down a major highway two days in a row.An estimated 10,000 activists blocked A12 highway leading to The Hague for several hours on Saturday, according to the mayor’s office. Police arrested some 2,400 people at the time.Hundreds of protesters did so again on Sunday, when police arrested another 500 people.The Extinction Rebellion activists were protesting the Dutch government’s subsidies for fossil fuel companies, as they have done in recent months.According to a report published earlier in the week by the Center for Research on Multinational Corporations, these subsidies total around €37.5 billion ($40.2 billion) each year.”The seas are rising and so are we,” the crowd chanted.Police fired water cannons at the protesters on Saturday and Sunday as they resisted requests to clear the road.They also dragged individuals away to clear the highway.Authorities said the activists had previously been given permission to protest and were asked to hold the demonstration at the nearby central station. (…)Extinction Rebellion said it would continue protesting until the Dutch government stops using public money to subsidize the oil and gas industry.
The Dutch government has already signed on to the climate agenda as set by the European Union and the World Economic Forum. In the name of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the state is pushing regulations that threaten to close thousands of farms and put farmers out of business.
The Dutch government’s surrender to EU climate demands has only emboldened activists, who now demand even more radical measures hurtful to the interests of industry, agriculture, and ordinary households.
While working class Europeans face record inflation and price hikes, the climate agitators have intensified their campaign against fossil fuel. In June, climate celebrity Greta Thunberg was fined by a Swedish court for her role in blockading oil tankers in the port of Malm. Thunberg and her followers prevented oil tankers from unloading for six days.
She accused the oil industry of ‘taking away’ her dreams. “The real crimes continue inside the gate of the port,” a hysterical Thunberg told the BBC. “We are not going to sit and wait while the fossil fuel industry takes our dreams away from us.”
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