Femke Halsema is a Dutch politician and filmmaker. On 27 June 2018, she was appointed Mayor of Amsterdam and began serving a six-year term on 12 July 2018. She is the first woman to hold the position on a non-interim basis. She previously was a member of the House of Representatives for the leftist green party GroenLinks from 1998 to 2011, and served as the party's parliamentary leader from 2002 to 2010.
The Vondelstraat riots were violent disturbances on Vondelstraat in Amsterdam, the Netherlands between squatters and the state in March 1980. It also involved the deployment of military tanks on the streets for the first time since World War II, and was one of the most serious disturbances involving squatters in the country.
The Amsterdam coronation riots refers to major violence and rioting in Amsterdam, the Netherlands on the day of the accession of Queen Beatrix, 30 April 1980. It was one of the biggest episodes of such disturbances in the country since the end of World War II and the most significant event of the Dutch squatters' movement (Krakersrellen).
We Are Here is a collective of migrants based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, which campaigns for human rights for its members and all undocumented migrants. The asylum seekers have in many cases had their applications to remain in the Netherlands denied but they either cannot go back or refuse to return to their country of origin. They ask for access to social services such as medical care and housing. The group formed in 2012 and by 2015 contained over 200 migrants from around 15 countries.
Vrankrijk is a legalised squat and self-managed social centre on the Spuistraat in central Amsterdam. There is an events space on the ground floor and above it a separate housing group.
The WNC squat was a self-managed social centre in Groningen, the Netherlands. It was squatted in 1985 and evicted in 1990.
Squatting in the Netherlands is the occupation of unused or derelict buildings or land without the permission of the owner. The modern squatters movement began in the 1960s in the Netherlands. By the 1980s, it had become a powerful anarchist social movement which regularly came into conflict with the state, particularly in Amsterdam with the Vondelstraat and coronation riots.
Ecotribe Teuge is a collective of people living on a squatted terrain in the Dutch countryside. It is located on the edge of the village of Teuge, in the province of Gelderland. The buildings were constructed by the Nazis and formerly used to house Moluccan soldiers. The site was occupied in 2001, when people began to live there in an off-the-grid and self-sufficient manner. Since 2018, there are plans by the province to develop the terrain.
The Tabakspanden are a group of buildings standing on the Spuistraat in central Amsterdam, adjacent to the Keizerrijk and Wijdesteeg alleyways. Named after a previous owner called Hendrik Tabak, they were mostly squatted from 1983 onwards, although Peter Klashorst also rented an apartment and gallery space. Two of the buildings are registered as rijksmonumenten.
In the morning of 18 September 2019, Dutch lawyer Derk Wiersum was shot and killed near his home in Amsterdam. At the time of his death, Wiersum was a lawyer for state witness Nabil B. in the Marengo case against the so-called 'Mocro Maffia' led by Ridouan Taghi. The murder caused a great shock in the world of lawyers; it was called "an attack on the rule of law".
De Vloek was a squatted, self-managed social centre in The Hague, the Netherlands, between 2002 and 2015. Located on Hellingweg 127 in Scheveningen, beside the North Sea, the squat hosted workplaces, living spaces, a venue and a vegan restaurant. The local council tolerated the occupation until 2014, when a political struggle over the eviction began. Some political parties supported the squatters and the Scheveningen Pier was briefly occupied. The building was evicted in September 2015 with seven arrests.
The Ubica buildings are two adjacent buildings standing at 24 and 26 Ganzenmarkt, in central Utrecht, the Netherlands. Number 24 is a rijksmonument. The first recorded mention of the buildings is from 1319. After centuries of residential use, the buildings were bought by the Ubica mattress company in 1913 and used until a devastating fire in 1989. The buildings were then squatted for 21 years, before being redeveloped into a hotel and café-restaurant in 2014.
The Amsterdamsestraatweg Water Tower is located in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The water tower was built at Amsterdamsestraatweg 380 in 1916, in the style of the Amsterdam School. It became derelict in 1986 and was repeatedly squatted before its redevelopment into apartments began in 2020.
Shortly after protests seeking justice for the murder of George Floyd, an African-American who was killed during a police arrest, began in the United States, people in the Netherlands protested to show solidarity with Americans and to demonstrate against issues with police or racism. Vigils and protests of up to thousands of participants have taken part nationwide.
Huize Ivicke is a monumental building in Wassenaar, the Netherlands. Constructed in 1913 for A. F. J. van Hattum, it is a replica of the Eremitageslottet hunting lodge in the Jaegersborg Dyrehave in Denmark. It was inhabited until the mid-1980s, when it became offices. Since 2000, it has been owned by speculator Ronnie van de Putte, known as the "Slum King of the Netherlands". He refuses to renovate the building, despite its monumental status. Heritage groups warned the local municipality in the late 2010s that the villa was severely dilapidated and it was placed on a list of the fourteen most threatened monuments in Europe. It is currently the subject of an intense dispute over emergency renovations and was squatted in 2018, by people wanting to carry out essential repairs. The house, the formal garden, the gate and the playhouse are all national monuments.
De Basis, formerly known as the Basic Income Party, is a minor political party in the Netherlands, which advocates for the implementation of a universal basic income. The party registered with the electoral council on 9 December 2013.
The 2021 Dutch curfew riots were a series of riots in the Netherlands that initiated as protests against the government's COVID-19 prevention measures and specifically the 21:00–4:30 curfew that was introduced on 23 January 2021. The police have described the riots as the worst in the country since the 1980 coronation riots.
The Moroccan mafia is a term that describes various criminal organisations that are mainly made up of people from Moroccan descent. These organisations are specialised in trafficking large quantities of cocaine and synthetic drugs through Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and Belgium, from where it is distributed to the rest of the European continent, thus being one of the most dominant participants in the European drug trade.
Joris Thijssen is a Dutch environmental activist and politician. After studying aerospace engineering, he started working for the environmental organization Greenpeace. He participated in numerous protest actions, leading to a number of arrests and a criminal record. In 2016, he became co-director of Greenpeace Netherlands. He left his job to participate in the 2021 general election, in which he was elected to the House of Representatives. There, he represents the Labour Party.
In the evening of 6 July 2021, Dutch investigative journalist and crime reporter Peter R. de Vries was shot in the head after leaving the television studio of RTL Boulevard in Amsterdam where he had appeared as a guest. Several bullets were fired at him in the Lange Leidsedwarsstraat, near the Leidseplein, while he was walking to his car. He was taken to the VU University Medical Center in critical condition. The hospital became heavily secured by police that same evening. De Vries died from his injuries on 15 July 2021.
