Justice minister David van Weel has told the Volkskrant in an interview that boosting confidence in the rule of law and tackling polarisation are among his main priorities for the coming year.

The minister, who served 10 years in the marines and is a minister on behalf of the right-wing Liberal VVD, told the paper that the police, public prosecution department and “other guardians of the rule of law” are being faced with both a heavier workload and increased polarisation.

“If there is a farmers’ protest and you are for the farmers, you are against tough police action,” he said. “And vice versa. If you’re for Extinction Rebellion, then you’re against crackdowns on people who glue themselves to the highway. So whatever the police or the prosecution service do is perceived as non-neutral action, while they are simply about enforcing the law.”

The new government’s coalition agreement includes a passage that states officials will make “a sharper distinction between (peaceful) demonstrations and disruptive action. (…)” and that officials “will be urged to act decisively where demonstrators cross the boundaries of criminal law.”

Van Weel told the paper that he agrees with the strategy because the majority of the population do not identify with the extremes in the debate.

“I genuinely wonder why, as a law-abiding citizen, you would think it a good idea to sit on the motorway … knowing that by doing so you are keeping hundreds of police officers occupied when we also have a festival and a football match,” he said.

He told the paper he did not want to curtail the right to demonstrate but that “I want to see if we can set limits within the right to demonstrate”.

“I think a large part of the population would be fine with that,” he said. “All those hours of policing can be put to good use elsewhere. Do these protesters see the impact of what they are doing on the rule of law?”

The WODC, a government agency that assesses new policy, is currently researching the right to demonstrate and the report will be published next year.