Climate protest in the Netherlands: nearly 1600 arrests, including actress Carice Van Houten

An impressive number of arrests. Dutch police announced Saturday night that they had made 1579 arrests during an action by the environmental movement Extinction Rebellion in The Hague to protest against fossil fuel subsidies.

It was the movement's seventh action on the Utrechtsebaan stretch of the A12 motorway in central The Hague, a stone's throw from parliament and key ministries, but never before had so many people been arrested, according to Dutch news agency ANP. According to an Extinction Rebellion spokesman, the demonstration brought together some 7,000 people on this sunny Saturday afternoon.

Forty persons prosecuted

Targeted by a police water cannon to force them to leave the premises, several activists had planned a swimsuit and danced under the drops. Hundreds of police officers were deployed to ensure public order during the demonstration, which began around noon.

Police said in a statement that they had "immediately and repeatedly called on the activists to stop their action and leave," adding that those "who failed to do so have been arrested." The vast majority were quickly released, and "40 will be prosecuted" for vandalism and insult, police said, adding that one of the activists had bitten a police officer.

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"Climate change is an ongoing crisis and we know the cause and it is still subsidized by our government, it has to stop," Anne Kerevers, 31, a doctoral student at the University of Amsterdam, told AFP.

Actress Carice Van Houten has returned home

Several Dutch celebrities have already participated in Extinction Rebellion's actions on this route to The Hague, which often lead to clashes with the police. In March, nearly 700 activists were arrested, according to the ANP.

On Saturday, actress Carice Van Houten, 46, best known for her role as Melisandre in the series "Game of Thrones", was part of the group of activists. She was arrested but according to her agent, she was able to return home in the evening, reported the ANP.

De vreedzame demonstratie op de A12 krijgt een grimmig karakter als de politie vóór de afgesproken tijd van 17:00 mensen hardhandig van het asfalt wegsleept. Carice van Houten ook.

En ik denk maar: dit durfden ze niet bij de gewelddadige protesten van boeren, de lafaards. pic.twitter.com/q3hpW11tz5

— Andy van den Dobbelsteen (@dobbelska) May 27, 2023

"We come back every month, or every two months, and every time the number of protesters doubles," said Aaron Pereira, 31, spokesman for Extinction Rebellion.

"There is broad popular support for real climate action and people are realizing that the government is actively opposing it by subsidizing the fossil fuel industry," he told AFP. "The blocking of a road like this has been recognised by the European Court of Human Rights as a legitimate form of protest," he added.

Prison sentences in the UK

The Brussels police have just been ordered to compensate twelve Extinction Rebellion activists arrested and handcuffed at the end of 2019 during a collage of posters, before being strip-searched in cells.

At the same time, Germany has cracked down on the environmentalists' punchy actions. German police on Wednesday carried out a vast operation against the radical environmental movement "Last Generation", which has carried out several controversial civil disobedience actions and has called for "protest marches" in response.

At the end of April, two activists from the environmental organisation Just Stop Oil were sentenced to up to three years in prison for blocking a major road near London, which is exceptionally severe in the UK for this type of action.