Extract of article published by DW on 10/09/2023- accessible here.
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.