Hague

Justice minister condemns ‘Hitler salutes, antisemitic slogans, violence’ at the anti-immigration rally.

Dutch riot police have intervened at a protest against immigration and asylum policies after about 500 far-right demonstrators pelted them with projectiles and fireworks .

Police used baton charges and dogs to break up the demonstration in The Hague on Saturday, reported the AFP news agency.

Local authorities said the demonstration was ended because of continued violence, and protesters were escorted away from Malieveld park in the city centre.

Police said they arrested 24 people and deployed water cannon to disperse the rioters. Further investigations were underway, they added.

Prime Minister Rob Jetten said on X that the demonstrators deliberately sought confrontation with the police and chanted “abhorrent” far-right and antisemitic slogans

Justice Minister David van Weel condemned the violent scenes and slogans.

“Identical images from the Malieveld. Hitler salutes, antisemitic slogans, violence against the police and throwing fireworks at the riot squad,” he posted on X. “It is important that hardline action is taken against this.”

He also thanked police officers for helping to maintain the democratic rule of law.

The “Wij zijn het volk” rally, which translates to “We are the people”, was organised to protest against government policies in the Netherlands’, specifically on immigration.

The protesters had planned to march through The Hague, but local authorities banned it when violence began and ordered the demonstration to be broken up.

Someone at the rally was seen giving a Hitler salute, while a truck serving as a stage displayed a screen reading “The Netherlands is for the Dutch,” according to the country’s largest national news agency, Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau (ANP).

Protester Thijs Jansen, a 31-year-old mechanic, told AFP: “We’re losing our country. We’re literally losing our country to mass migration”.

Saturday’s unrest came a year after Dutch police used water cannon to disperse another anti-immigration rally in The Hague.

A police car was then set on fire in clashes between black-clad protesters and police, as the headquarters of the centrist D66 party were attacked. Its leader, Rob Jetten, is now prime minister.

Prosecutors have requested a 45-year jail sentence for Thaci and three wartime commanders accused of war crimes.

The Kosovo war crimes tribunal will on Wednesday deliver its verdicts in the case of former President Hashim Thaci and several wartime commanders accused of murder and torture during the self-declared republic’s break from Serbia.

Thaci, 58, is facing several counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, torture and persecution, along with three former commanders from the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a separatist militia that fought Serbian troops.

Thaci and the other former high-ranking commanders, Jakup Krasniqi, Rexhep Selimi and Kadri Veseli, deny the charges.

Prosecutors have requested 45-year prison sentences for each of the men.

The case is extremely contentious within Kosovo, where Thaci remains a revered figure for many Kosovan Albanians due to his role in the 1998-99 independence war.

On Saturday, tens of thousands gathered in the capital, Pristina, to call for their acquittal in the latest of several rallies since the trial began. Portraits of the four former KLA fighters have been plastered across the city along with a huge digital clock counting down to the verdicts.

“In the name of the people, declare them innocent,” one banner read.

According to prosecutors, the men targeted political opponents and civilians perceived as collaborators and traitors during their time in the KLA.

Thaci’s lawyers argued in February there is no evidence that directly links him to any of the crimes.

“There are no orders in the record from Thaci to perpetrators of crimes. There are no reports from perpetrators of crimes to Thaci,” lawyer Luka Misetic told judges at the Kosovo tribunal in February.

Most of the 13,000 people who died in the war in Kosovo were ethnic Albanians. A 78-day campaign of NATO air attacks against Serbian forces ended the fighting. About one million ethnic Albanian Kosovars were driven from their homes.

In 2008, Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia, a move that Belgrade refuses to recognise. Ties between Kosovo and Serbia remain tense, despite years of negotiations mediated by the European Union.

MOLLY MAE Hague has shared an incident where she was scared she was being judged for her parenting when her toddler, Bambi, had a melt down at the hairdressers. 

The TV star and entrepreneur has never been shy about sharing the ins and outs of her life as a mum-of-two via her vlogs, sharing earlier this month that three-year-old Bambi has entered “her aggressive era” that saw her putting people in headlocks. 

Now, in her newest video, she shared an incident where three-year-old Bambi caused a commotion while getting her haircut. 

“Today’s vlogging has not really gone to plan,” she told viewers. “I was going to vlog Bambi’s haircut, but honestly, that was a really traumatic experience. 

“I don’t know why. I mean, to be fair, she’s been saying for a few weeks ‘I don’t want to get my hair cut’, but like you know, just being sort of like a toddler, and just sort of the way a toddler would be, just trying to be difficult, you know how it is.” 

However, it seems Bambi was more sure of her stance than her mum anticipated – and wasn’t afraid to make it known to everyone when they got to the salon. 

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“Got to the hairdressers, full blown, didn’t want to get her haircut, full blown tantrum,” Molly shared. “I did say at one point like, okay, like we’ll just leave it then because it’s really not meant to be a traumatic thing, like this is meant to be a special treat, getting your hair done is meant to be.” 

“But I also know for children it can be a really overwhelming, strange experience because you’ve got people around you that you don’t know,” she said.

“Bambi’s not great with strangers anyway, she really isn’t. It really takes her a while to warm up to people, and I think she went into the hairdresser, and it was just very overwhelming.

“There was like a cape being put on her, a lot of people around her that she didn’t know, a new place that she’d never been to before…” 

Molly admits she’d “do things a bit different next time” by introducing her to the idea more slowly so the toddler understood, and perhaps going to a child-friendly salon rather than a normal adult one which she “thought would be fine”. 

“In the end, her little friend actually came and got her hair cut at the same time, which was really nice,” she explained. 

“When she turned up, things did calm down a lot, and we managed to get her hair cut.” 

However, she noted that she was left uncomfortable with the amount of attention the situation drew. 

“Everyone that was getting their hair done was looking at us like ‘oh’, and I didn’t know if I was handling her tantrum very well,” she admitted. “You know when you’re trying to handle a tantrum and people are watching over you, watching you handle it, there’s no pressure like it. Like, am I doing parenting right, right now?

“It’s hard enough to do it with no eyes on you, let alone when people are watching you with bleach on their hair.”