More than 10,000 Dutch farmers demonstrated against government plans to restrict nitrogen emissions in The Hague on Saturday. According to them, this policy will put an end to many farms and have an adverse impact on the food supply.
The protest, which was organized ahead of the March 15 regional elections and came after a similar one by farmers in Belgium this month against nitrogen emission regulations, saw many participants holding the national flag symbolically upside down.
In another part of the city, tens of thousands of climate activists shut down a major road in an unofficial demonstration against tax policies they say to promote the use of fossil fuels. Late in the afternoon, police dispersed a group of roughly 100 activists using water cannons.
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During the peaceful demonstration organised by the Farmers’ Defence Force group, the protesters carried banners reading “No farmers, no food,” and “There is no nitrogen problem”.
Environmentalists led by the climate activist group Extinction Rebellion scaled a wall next to the road they had blocked to hang a banner reading “Stop fossil subsidies”.
Protesters are calling for an end to fuel tax exemptions for coal and oil refineries, which were put in place to prevent double taxation, as well as exemptions for the shipping and aviation sectors, which were agreed upon at the EU level.
Story was adapted from Reuters
