Extinction Rebellion blocks A10 South again: “Saving the world is more important than King’s Day”

Dozens of demonstrators from Extinction Rebellion have blocked the A10 South again. They walked onto the highway just after noon. The police intervened around 1:15 p.m. All demonstrators have now been removed and the highway is open to traffic again.

The demonstrators gathered in the morning on the lawn near the former ING office. They walked up the ramp leading to the highway around noon. Not long after, they were walking onto the highway.

The triangle (municipality, police and justice) has banned the demonstration in advance. The municipality announced via a message on “Protesters have entered the A10 for a prohibited demonstration. The police are preparing to take action.”

Around 12:30 https://twitter.com/AT5/status/1784167740934115486 the Mobile Unit the demonstrators. They were given fifteen minutes to leave the highway. The municipality also wrote on X that the demonstration had been ‘formally dissolved’ by Mayor Halsema. “The demonstration will be ended and the demonstrators will be removed from the A10.”

Photos show that climate activists have again used cars to block the highway a little further away. A detention van soon appeared next to a number of cars. Several demonstrators were arrested there. Still, a number of demonstrators managed to walk to the rest of the group on the empty highway with large banners.

“I think it’s more important to try to save the world than to celebrate King’s Day,” said one of them. “I have no other choice, to be honest.”

After several warnings, the first demonstrators were arrested around 1:15 p.m. It took the police about half an hour to round up everyone and put them on GVB buses.

These demonstrators were dropped off on Driemondweg in Zuidoost. After previous blockades, they were not prosecuted or fined, nor were their identity details written down. This was now also the case with most demonstrators.

The activists have already blocked the A10 South twice before. They were able to walk onto the highway after other demonstrators in rented cars or on bicycles blocked traffic for the first time nearby. A third attempt at the end of March failed, because the police were then able to immediately confiscate the rented cars.