Residents in the Netherlands took to the streets over the weekend to protest COVID vaccine mandates and other measures imposed by the government to slow the spread of the virus.
“Dutch caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Monday condemned rioters in Rotterdam and other towns and cities across the Netherlands over the weekend as ‘idiots’ and said police and prosecutors would bring them to justice,” reports Fox News.
"I realize that there are a lot of tensions in society because we have been dealing with all the misery of coronavirus for so long," Rutte said.
“The violence came a week into a new partial lockdown in the Netherlands and after an announcement that the government was banning fireworks on New Year's Eve in an effort to ease the strain on hospital emergency rooms. In riots across the country, youths threw fireworks at police officers,” adds Fox.
Rutte explained that as a leader of the Netherlands, "I will always fight for the right to demonstrate in this country. That is part of our democracy, of our rule of law, but what I will never accept is that idiots use sheer violence against the people who work for you and me every day ... to keep this country safe under the guise of: We are dissatisfied."
Read the full report here.
