Climate activists block private planes at Schiphol Airport, protesting farmers block motorways. These are not exceptional actions nowadays: Dutch people are protesting more in the last decade than ever before, on an unprecedented variety of issues. This leads to public discussions: what do we find acceptable ways of taking action, and to what extent does an 'acceptable' demonstration actually achieve its goal? In her project 'Room for protest?', launched in September 2022, political historian Carla Hoetink investigates how democracy and public order have clashed in protests in the Netherlands since 1919.
'Much existing research on protest focuses either on the activists and the social movements behind them, or on the perspective of the authorities and how they deal with demonstrations. I am going to look precisely where the two meet,' Hoetink says. 'The moment protesters take to the streets, the authorities often have to or want to do something about it. A kind of negotiation game arises and that is where my interest lies.’
Disrupting public order
On 14 November, human rights organisation Amnesty International published a report to draw attention to the right to demonstrate in the Netherlands. Local restrictions put pressure on the right to demonstrate, Amnesty argues, while that right is so important for democracy. Municipalities and the national government are quick to see demonstrations as a risk and therefore impose restrictions, or ban demonstrations altogether. 'Since COVID-19, mayors are quicker to say: a demonstration is a threat to public order, we are not going to do that,' Hoetink also notes.
What is understood by the importance of that public order, according to Hoetink, differs according to place, situation and time. 'What is allowed in Groningen at one moment, for example, is sometimes not allowed in Limburg at that same moment. In such cases, public order is taken into consideration, and that is where local authorities have a lot of room and powers,' the historian explains. A recent example is the Nijmegen Four Days Marches Festival: when the Farmers Defence Force (FDF) announced they wanted to demonstrate at the Nijmegen Four Days Marches Festival, mayor Hubert Bruls instituted an emergency ordinance to keep tractors out of the city. Hoetink: 'That shows that different rules and room apply during a big event like the Four Days Marches than when there are no Four Days Marches. I therefore also chose to take a local and regional perspective in my research, and look outside the Randstad: at protests in Groningen, Arnhem and Den Bosch.'
Negotiation game
That the rules of the negotiation game between authorities and protesters differ from case to case also became very clear during the farmers' protests last summer. Hoetink: 'Both the protesters and the authorities monitor the media in such a situation to see how society reacts: how much annoyance arises, how far can we go or let it go? And is there support for interventions?' Public support seemed higher for farmers than for other actions. 'It struck me how connected the farming community is to Dutch cultural identity. Perhaps this explains why proportionally there seems to be less room for other social movements at the moment,' says Hoetink. 'And I am curious whether I will find such differences in the past as well. Did tradespeople perhaps get more room than miners, or the other way around?'
With the current financial worries, unstable housing market, international tensions and lingering climate crisis, the post-COVID era seems a 'perfect storm' for demonstrations. Whether we can expect more large-scale actions in the near future? 'Well, then you’re asking a historian to predict the future,' says Hoetink. 'There is, also because of the recession we are presumably heading for, a broad group of people who feel their individual livelihoods are threatened. Some of these people may not be so quick to take to the streets for more idealistic or immaterial causes, but are willing to take action if they are directly affected themselves. I think there are turbulent times ahead, we will probably notice this during the Provincial Council elections in 2023.'
Carla Hoetink is a lecturer and researcher in the field of modern political and parliamentary history. Read more about her project 'Room for protest'.