Category Archives: Netherlands

Rotterdam mayor calls for end to lax stance on middle-class drug use

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Europe has been ‘negligent,’ as an acceptance of cocaine and cannabis leads to corruption, violence, and misery, says Aboutaleb

The mayor of a city on the frontline of the illegal drug trade has said that a “negligent” attitude to recreational drug use, including an acceptance of cocaine as the middle-class narcotic of choice, has led to violence and corruption in Europe’s poorest neighbourhoods.

As the Netherlands digests three life sentences handed out in the criminal trial of drug baron Ridouan Taghi and his “well-oiled murder machine” gang, Ahmed Aboutaleb, mayor of Rotterdam, has demanded authorities take a tougher line on cocaine use.

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Dutch gallery boss appeals for return of stolen Frans Hals painting

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Rijksmuseum director general makes plea for artwork taken from Leerdam in August 2020 before new exhibition in Amsterdam

The director general of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has appealed for the return of a stolen Frans Hals painting as he prepares to open a major exhibition devoted to the Dutch master without the “amazing” €15m artwork.

Two Laughing Boys With a Mug of Beer was stolen from the Museum Hofje van Mevrouw van Aerden in the Dutch town of Leerdam in August 2020. Unlike a Van Gogh painting believed to have been taken by the same gang and recovered last year, the Hals appears to have vanished into the criminal world.

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Geert Wilders’ hopes of becoming Dutch PM dim after centrist party quits talks

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NSC’s Pieter Omtzigt said to be shocked by public finances as he abandons talks to form coalition under far-right leader

Geert Wilders’ chances of forming a majority government in the Netherlands have been dealt a heavy blow after one of the far-right leader’s three potential partners abruptly withdrew from coalition talks citing concerns over public finances.

Wilders, whose Freedom party (PVV) shocked Europe by finishing first in elections last November, said on X he was “unbelievably disappointed” by the decision of New Social Contract (NSC) to declare it was “finished” with the current round of talks.

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Farmers face ‘lasagne of different measures’, Belgian leader says after protests block border crossings – as it happened

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Prime minister says blockades by protesting farmers at Dutch-Belgian border ‘have been stopped’

Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo arrived in Place du Luxembourg just as a bronze statue that was felled in the protests yesterday was being taken away.

The statue, which weighed 200kg, was taken into a van by half a dozen men, as the clean-up in the square continues.

I think, by now, all governments have basically seen them, the Flemish government, the federal government – yesterday also the president of the [European] Commission.

We’ve shown that we’re able to come up with steps in the right direction. For some measures, we need more time to elaborate. And there’s a real willingness to go forward.

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Bangladesh launches investigation into children ‘wrongly’ adopted overseas

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Police start to interview witnesses following Guardian reports on adoptions to the Netherlands nearly 50 years ago

Read more: ‘I was told I could visit. Then she went missing’: the Bangladeshi mothers who say their children were adopted without consent

Police in Bangladesh have launched an investigation into historical allegations that children were adopted abroad without their parents’ consent, after a Guardian investigation into adoptions to the Netherlands in the 1970s.

Bangladesh special branch in Dhaka confirmed it had opened an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the adoption of a number of children between 1976 and 1979.

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Social enterprise offers young people paid opportunity to protect UK oceans

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Sea Ranger Service will offer the chance to carry out maintenance work and climate research on sailing vessels

A social enterprise has launched offering people between the ages of 18 and 29 the chance to protect the seas around the UK while getting paid.

The Sea Ranger Service (SRS) will offer young people the chance to sail out to sea and undertake vital work to conserve Britain’s oceans.

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Why Europe’s farmers are protesting – and the far right is taking note

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For some farmers already struggling, paying for more of their pollution is a step too far. Germany is the latest country to see anger boil over

The columns of tractors that have blocked roads in Germany, causing chaos in cities and headaches for commuters, are the latest wave in a growing tide of anger against efforts to protect Europe’s nature from the pollution pumped out by its farms.

In recent years, farmers in western Europe have fought with increasing ferocity against policies to protect the planet that they say cost too much. In the Netherlands, where the backlash has been strongest, a court ruling on nitrogen emissions in 2019 triggered furious and recurring protests over government efforts to close farms and cut the number of animals on them. In Belgium, similar fights led to convoys of tractors clogging the EU quarter of Brussels in March last year. In Ireland, which has seen smaller protests, dairy farmers angry at nitrogen restrictions marched with their cows to the offices of three government ministers last month.

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Four arrested in Europe over alleged cross-border Hamas terrorism plot

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Three held in Germany and one in Netherlands over plans for possible attacks on Jewish institutions, prosecutor says

Four people have been arrested in Germany and the Netherlands on suspicion of being part of a cross-border Hamas terror plot that German prosecutors said aimed to obtain weapons to target Jewish institutions in Europe.

Three others were arrested in Denmark on separate terrorism offences, and the country’s politicians indicated they were also Hamas related, while the prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said the threat was “as serious as it gets”.

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Boris Johnson considered ‘raid’ on vaccine plant in the Netherlands

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Covid inquiry expected to be told former PM was open to ‘military options’ to obtain ‘impounded’ jabs from factory in Leiden

Boris Johnson’s appearance before the Covid-19 inquiry is not until Wednesday but it is already making headlines in the Netherlands amid a mixture of amusement and alarm at claims he asked for British spies to plan a “raid” on a Dutch vaccine plant.

The operation – according to sources who briefed Johnson’s employer, the Daily Mail – would have taken place against the backdrop of a tit-for-tat row in March 2021 between the then prime minister and the EU, which was moving towards restricting exports of vaccines across the Channel.

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‘It was heartbreaking’: Muslim mayor comes to terms with Dutch election result

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Ahmed Marcouch, directly targeted by Geert Wilders during his career, grapples with how best to heal country’s wounds

Soon after news broke that the populist Geert Wilders and his anti-Islam Party for Freedom (PVV) had won the most votes of any party in the Dutch elections, Ahmed Marcouch found himself comforting his distraught eight-year-old.

Earlier in the day, a teacher at his son’s school had explained the election results, discussing the wide differences between parties. Now Marcouch’s son was terrified that the family would have to leave the country.

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Demand soars for Dutch first editions of book naming UK royals in race row

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Copies of book about British monarchy changing hands on resale websites for up to €175

Dutch first editions of the book Endgame, which names two members of the British royal family alleged to have discussed the skin colour of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s unborn baby, are selling online for many times above the original retail price of €22.99.

As parts of the British press reached fever pitch trying to find out whether the Dutch version had contained a mistranslation, or had failed to adopt final excisions or was running a strange publicity stunt, bids for a Dutch version on Marktplaats on Thursday reached €175 (£150).

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Nine men to be tried for murder of Dutch crime reporter Peter R de Vries

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Hearing to start in January in case of journalist shot in the street in 2021 who was adviser to a witness in trial of a Dutch drug baron

Nine men suspected of the murder of prominent Dutch crime reporter Peter R de Vries will go on trial in January, a Dutch court has announced, with a verdict expected by the summer.

De Vries was gunned down on a busy Amsterdam street on 6 July 2021, shortly after leaving a TV studio where he had appeared as a guest on a programme.

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Finland to close border with Russia for two weeks, prime minister announces – as it happened

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Finnish PM Petteri Orpo says border crossing will close from Thursday as Finland accuses Russia of orchestrating arrival of people from third countries. This live blog is now closed

The foreign ministers of the Baltic states have decided not to attend the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) ministerial council in Skopje, the three politician said in a statement today.

We have also seen nothing but Russia’s obstructive behavior within the OSCE itself – first, by blocking any OSCE presence and activities in Ukraine, then by blocking Estonia’s 2024 chairmanship on completely fabricated reasons and now by blocking constructive solutions for keeping the organization alive and functional.

We deeply regret the decision enabling the personal participation of Russian Foreign Minister S. Lavrov at the 30th Session of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Skopje. It will only provide Russia with yet another propaganda opportunity.

Nato needs a proven consensus-builder. We are going to have 32 countries, keeping 32 countries together on any topic is a big challenge, and we need a consensus-builder that can work with any and all allies to move everyone forward in the same direction.

Second, I think it’s important that the next secretary general would come from a country … that has a proven track record of investing in his or her own military spending, so investing the 2% of GDP or above. I think that’s important as a clear signal to all allies that this really is important to us.

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Geert Wilders wants former minister as new ‘scout’, reports say, after first one resigns over fraud claims – as it happened

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Gom van Strien’s planned talks with party leaders have been cancelled after he stepped down. This live blog is closed

Irish police are expected to make sweeping arrests of suspected ringleaders of Thursday’s riot in Dublin and to obtain wider rights to use facial recognition technology to help identify suspects in any future disorder.

The moves come amid mounting pressure on the government and police chiefs over the violence on 24 November when an estimated 500 anti-immigrant activists and gangs of young people looted shops, burned vehicles and attacked officers, leaving swathes of Ireland’s capital resembling a war zone.

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Geert Wilders: effort to form Netherlands coalition not off to ‘dream start’

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Blow to far-right leader as man chosen to oversee coalition talks quits over fraud claims

The far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders has admitted that he was not off to a “dream start” in his attempts to form a government, after a man he appointed to oversee coalition talks quit over fraud allegations before getting started in the role.

Wilders and his Party for Freedom (PVV) look to have won almost a quarter of seats in the 150-seat Dutch parliament in last Wednesday’s elections, about 10 seats more than predicted.

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Success of Geert Wilders’ far-right PVV raises fears for Dutch climate policies

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The party has a hostile stance on attempts to cut carbon emissions but got more votes than any other in general election

The shocking success of Geert Wilders’ far-right PVV party in Dutch elections has left climate activists fearful of a drastic shift to fossil fuels and a rollback of climate policies if it manages to form a government.

Best known abroad for its rhetoric against Muslims, the PVV, which came first in Wednesday’s election but may struggle to find coalition partners, has taken a hard line on policies to stop the planet getting hotter.

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Geert Wilders vows to become Dutch PM by compromising with other parties

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Anti-Islam MP who won recent election says he will ‘continue to moderate’ his positions to gain power

Veteran Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders on Saturday vowed to be prime minister of the Netherlands, after an election in which his party won the most seats.

In a long post on X, formerly Twitter, that expressed frustration at other parties for their apparent unwillingness to cooperate with his Freedom party (PVV), Wilders said he would “continue to moderate” his positions if necessary to gain power.

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‘It’s scary’: residents in Rotterdam reflect on Geert Wilders’ election win

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Wilders’ far-right party won the most seats in Dutch election, though many in this diverse city say they can understand why

In this tiny plaza, still plastered with posters urging voters to back the minority rights party Denk, the yawning divide between voters in Rotterdam’s diverse Feijenoord district was on full display.

On one side stood Nas Kosa, a Muslim who fears what might lie ahead after Geert Wilders’ far right, anti-Islam party surged to win more seats than any other party in Wednesday’s election.

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WW2 bomber crew’s remains identified 80 years after plane shot down over Netherlands

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Burials can go ahead of men who never returned from bombing mission over Germany in 1943

Eighty years after they were shot down by the Germans over Dutch waters, British airmen Arthur Smart, Raymond Moore and Charles Sprack can be laid to rest after the Dutch defence ministry confirmed their remains had been identified.

Two silver-plated cigarette cases were found with the initials of the 27-year-old flight engineer Smart and 21-year-old wireless operator Moore.

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Outgoing Netherlands PM’s party rules out Geert Wilders coalition

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Talks begin with liberal leader warning people not to be fooled by Wilders’ ‘Mother Teresa’ act

The party of the Netherlands’ outgoing prime minister, Mark Rutte, has ruled out forming a government with the anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders, as coalition talks began following this week’s shock general election result.

Their decision removes the first building block of a potential partnership government with Wilders’ Freedom party (PVV), which caused a political earthquake after winning more seats than any other party in Wednesday’s vote.

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