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Arrest of a climate activist: Environmentalists have once again blocked a motorway in The Hague
Photo: Sem Van Der Wal/dpa
As in the previous year, the climate activists from “Extinction Rebellion” blocked a highway leading through The Hague. The Dutch police removed the stuck activists from the street on Saturday and said they arrested around a thousand people.
Climate activists are demanding that the Netherlands remove all government subsidies for fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. The group accuses the government of failing to keep a promise to eliminate tax breaks and other forms of subsidies for aviation, shipping, fossil fuel power generation and oil production.
The incumbent climate minister Rob Jetten wants to make proposals for the future government to reduce subsidies in about a week. On Friday he asked the activists for “a few days of patience.”
The group had already blocked the A12 in The Hague dozens of times last year. As the public broadcaster "NOS" reported, the clearing of the blockade, which had been banned by the mayor, was taking a long time because demonstrators had stuck themselves to the asphalt. The city said the highway would be cleaned and then reopened to traffic.
spr/dpa