The authorities failed to enforce the ban on tractors on the road during the farmers’ protest on 1 October in The Hague. That is what prosecutor Linda Bregman says in an interview with Opportunity, the trade journal of the Public Prosecution Service.
Nevertheless, Bregman believes that the police acted wisely on the day that thousands of farmers came to Malieveld to express their dissatisfaction with the government’s nitrogen policy. “She (the police, ed.) Has opted for as much safety as possible on the highway. That is why families and people just went to work.”
On that day, Bregman was part of the Large-Scale and Special Action Staff (SGBO), a flexible organization that manages and coordinates police deployment in the event of a crisis or major incident.
According to the officer, it was not possible for the police to stop the farmers. Moreover, according to her there was a lot of alcohol in the game. “Make no mistake: the dynamics were often not really nice. I do not know if you have seen the images of the farmers who drove through the fence at the Malieveld?”
In addition, according to Bregman, it was also a factor that “the general public stood behind the demonstrators quite en masse”. “If you act firmly, things can escalate enormously, with all the associated risks.”
“I woke up in a totally different reality”
The farmers wanted to hear a contradiction that day, because they had come under the microscope in the nitrogen dossier the previous weeks. For example, D66 suggested halving the herd to reduce nitrogen emissions. The Advisory Board on Nitrogen Problems also came up with the advice to take measures against agricultural companies that emit a relatively large number of emissions or have outdated stables.
In the run-up to the farmers’ demonstration, the OM’s premise was that the law prohibiting tractors from accessing the motorway would simply be enforced. It was agreed with the municipality that 75 tractors were allowed to come to Malieveld. Bregman: “Well, I went to bed and woke up in a totally different reality.”
The next morning at 6:00 am she saw videos of tractors on the highway on the way to The Hague. “At that time I already knew that enforcement on the highway had not been successful. The tractors were apparently unstoppable.” Eventually four hundred to five hundred tractors were parked on the Malieveld.
That maintenance was again unsuccessful in the second farmers’ demonstration on 16 October and in the building protest on 30 October. “Not because we didn’t want it. Not because we didn’t get the law. But because it just couldn’t be stopped,” the Public Prosecutor said.
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