On Tuesday evening, the Ministry of Defense sent several trucks to the building of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in Bilthoven. That confirms a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense to NU.nl. The trucks are parked at the building due to Wednesday’s expected rural protests.
Several security regions announced Tuesday evening because of the protest day, following Utrecht, to ban demonstrations with agricultural vehicles. It concerns the Safety regions Groningen, Flevoland and the Gooi- en Vechtstreek.
“It has become clear in recent days that farmers’ representatives, including the Farmer Defense Force (FDF), are once again planning to organize large-scale demonstrations, blockades or other disruptive actions,” the municipality of Groningen writes.
The ban applies in all three safety regions from midnight to 11:59 pm. “The aim of this is to protect health, ensure road safety and prevent disorder. Everyone is free to demonstrate in other ways,” said the municipality of Groningen.
Defense trucks deployed in Bilthoven
The Utrecht Safety Region forbidden the farmers earlier on Tuesday to come to the demonstration with tractors. Demonstrators are now allowed to gather with a maximum of two thousand people on the Biltse Rading, near the RIVM building.
In Bilthoven, about sixteen trucks with forty soldiers drove to the RIVM building on Tuesday evening. The vehicles were sent at the request of the mayor of Bilthoven, Sjoerd Potters.
The trucks must close the streets leading to the building. Army vehicles were also used in previous farmer protests.
Actions directed against animal feed measure
Farmers organize a national protest day with various actions, including at the RIVM. The actions are aimed at the feed measure that agriculture minister Carola Schouten wants to introduce from 1 September to tackle the nitrogen problem in the Netherlands.
The farmers are angry with this measure. RIVM calculations show that livestock farming is the main cause of the nitrogen problem in the Netherlands. According to the farmers, these calculations are incorrect.
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