Extra security measures are being brought in for the Remembrance Day ceremony on the Dam in central Amsterdam on May 4 to exclude protest actions.

In particular, the number of people admitted to the ceremony will be slashed from 20,000 to 10,000 and everyone attending will be searched. Flags and megaphones will be banned.

The measures have been agreed by city mayor Femke Halsema and the police and are down to heightened tensions in society and a greater readiness by campaigners to take action, the Nationale Comité 4 en 5 Mei, which organises the commemorations, said.

Both the police and counter-terrorism unit NCTV had received indications that there could be a spontaneous protest on the Dam. But Halsema admits the extra measures are no guarantee there will not be trouble. 

“The only way we could hold a ceremony guaranteed to be without protest would be on an empty Dam,” Halsema said. “But that is not what we or the organising committee want.” 

Last month the opening of the new Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam was accompanied by protests about the presence of Israeli president Isaac Herzog and in support of Palestine.  There have also been calls for the scope of Remembrance Day to be widened to include more conflicts.

The Netherlands will fall silent for two minutes at 8 pm on May 4, as the country remembers the Dutch who died in World War II and subsequent wars.

Trains and cars will come to a halt and there are no take-offs and landings at Schiphol airport during two minutes’ silence, which takes place at 8 pm. Shops and supermarkets are required by law to close at 7 pm, and bars and restaurants warn their clients that the music will stop for a short period of reflection.

The main ceremony, attended by the king and queen, takes place on the Dam but there are hundreds of others all over the country.