VVD and CDA reject calls for firework ban, say it won’t solve New Year mayhem

Arnhem locals outside the flats where a man and his son died. Photo: Flip Franssen via HH
Arnhem locals outside the flats where a man and his son died. Photo: Flip Franssen via HH

MPs from two of the four ruling parties have again rejected calls for a wide-ranging ban on fireworks, despite the deaths and destruction caused during this year’s New Year celebrations.

A man and his four-year-old son were killed in a fire caused by fireworks in Arnhem and fire engines were called out 4,340 times to deal with problems, according to brigade figures.

Hundreds of people were arrested and dozens of cars set on fire during the festivities. In some instances, emergency service workers were pelted with stones and fireworks.

Police chief Erik Akerboom on Wednesday renewed his calls for a ban on larger consumer fireworks after reporting that there was a slight rise in the number of incidents requiring emergency service intervention this year.

Akerboom called for the current free-for-all to be replaced by large, organised firework displays and for heavier sentences for people who attack the police, fire brigade and ambulance workers.

But the increase in incidents is not a reason to bring in an outright ban, CDA MP Chris van Dam said. ‘The problem is much wider than the question of introducing some sort of ban,’ he said. ‘On New Year’s Eve there is a sort of explosion of loutish behaviour… and people seem to think they can do what they like.’

Van Dam posted a photograph of a lamppost and the remains of fires in The Hague suburb of Duindorp on Twitter. ‘Whoever says the New Year was relatively peaceful needs to ask themselves what they consider to be normal,’ Van Dam said.

Nevertheless, it would be impossible to stop people travelling to Belgium or Germany to buy fireworks, and a ban would be impossible to maintain, Van Dam said.

VVD parliamentarian Dilan Yesilgoz also described the vandalism and attacks on emergency service workers as ‘unacceptable’ and called for a ‘tough approach’ to punishing offenders rather than a ban on consumer fireworks.

‘A ban will not help to stop the violence against emergency service workers,’ she told RTL Nieuws. ‘You have to take action against the perpetrators.’

Draft legislation

Opposition party GroenLinks, however, is working together with the pro-animal PvdD to draw up legislation which would ban the use of fireworks by consumers.  Party leader Jesse Klaver said after a tour of the celebrations with The Hague police that ‘it is terrible how the New Year celebrations get out of hand every year’.

‘Fireworks are not the only factor but they are an important one,’ he told reporters. ‘And they contribute to the feeling of not being safe… politicians cannot continue to look away.’

Justice minister Ferd Grapperhaus has pledged to update MPs on the New Year problems next week and before the celebrations had hinted he might back some form of ban.

The cabinet has come under considerable pressure to ban some sorts of fireworks and some types of firecrackers will no longer be legally sold to consumers from the end of this year.

In total, police seized over 58 tonnes of illegal fireworks in the run up to New Year.

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