In Limburg Mook it is not allowed. No fireworks, not even on New Year’s Eve. So arranged last year in the local police regulation. With broad support from the city council, says mayor Willem Gradisen (PvdA). At the time, this coincided with the national fireworks ban due to corona, but this year there was not even a discussion about it politically in Mook. In the Limburg municipality they do things differently than – almost everywhere – elsewhere in the country. And enforcement? That is left to a private security company at night.
Mook en Middelaar, that’s the full name of the municipality, belongs to the group of twelve municipalities where such a general fireworks ban will apply next year. Elsewhere in the country, after two years of national fireworks ban, it is allowed to set off again.
With eight thousand inhabitants, Mook is the smallest municipality in the list of municipalities where fireworks are prohibited. And according to Mayor Gradisen, that fireworks ban does not come out of the blue. In 2019, that ban was not yet in place and things went wrong due to what Gradisen calls “the waterbed effect”. “In the neighboring municipalities of Heumen and Nijmegen there was a ban on fireworks at the time, so we were pretty much the only place where everything was still allowed.” According to the mayor, things got out of hand when there was a blast in an empty shop, which did have homes above it. People shot flares at each other. “The police had to retreat in the chaos and later restore order with the dog brigade.”
The fireworks ban has been in effect ever since. Also because the police had advised it. Gradisen: “But even without that advice: we are heading nationally for the largest risk event that we know in the Netherlands. An event that is surrounded by so many risks that it would normally not be permitted anywhere.”
unrest elsewhere
While twelve municipalities are likely to have a quiet New Year’s Eve, law enforcement officers elsewhere are anxiously waiting. They prepare for a crisis night. The trade in illegal fireworks, sometimes with the impact of a hand grenade, is booming like never before. The 25 security regions (fire brigade, ambulance services, emergency services, including the responsible mayors of the central municipalities in those regions) have wanted a permanent nationwide ban on fireworks for some time now. The police joined in this week. The coming New Year will be the “ultimate test”, said police coordinator Peije de Meij on Tuesday. “If lighting fireworks again only causes injury, misery and damage, we as the police can only continue to insist on a national fireworks ban.”
Read also: Legal or illegal, the fireworks trade is going wild this year
The question is whether the turn of the year passes that test. Investigation services have now seized 671 tons of illegal fireworks, three times as many as last year, the Public Prosecution Service reported on Tuesday. But that has hardly any effect on prices on the black market. A sign, according to experts, how many illegal fireworks are still in circulation.
Political support
What is visible is that political support for the fireworks tradition is waning. Last June, a bill by GroenLinks and the Party for the Animals was put on hold in the House of Representatives to completely ban consumer fireworks. On the left flank, the SP prevented a majority for that ban, although the party hinted that if things get out of hand again next weekend, the SP would still vote in favor.
Minister Dilan Yeşzilgöz (Justice and Security, VVD) is also concerned, according to a report sent to the House of Representatives last month. letter. According to her, the illegal trade in fireworks has now become intertwined with the criminal circuit of explosive squatters and attackers. Fireworks nuisance is now common practice at football matches or riots. According to her, the police have too little scope. Preventive searches in security risk areas could offer scope. But that is only allowed if there are concrete indications that firearms are in circulation. And that is not yet fireworks according to the law.
Read also: 65 percent of Dutch people in favor of fireworks ban
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