Anti-immigration demonstration in The Hague turns violent, weeks before general election

Right-wing protesters clashed with riot police in The Hague on Saturday, as an anti-immigration demonstration attended by hundreds of people turned violent.

Rioters, many wearing black and waving Dutch flags and flags associated with far-right groups, threw stones and bottles at the police and set one of their patrol vehicles on fire. The police, in return, used tear gas and a water cannon to disperse the crowd.

Protesters also briefly blocked the highway and vandalised the office of centre-left political party, D66, smashing several windows, local media reported.

“Scum. You keep your hands off political parties,” the party's leader Rob Jetten wrote on X. “If you think you can intimidate us, tough luck. We will never let our beautiful country be taken away by extremist rioters."

“Shocking and bizarre images of shameless violence in The Hague,” caretaker Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof wrote on X, calling the attacks on police and the D66 office “completely unacceptable” and expressed confidence that police and prosecutors would apprehend and prosecute the perpetrators.

"There is always room for demonstrations, never for violence," he concluded.

Hundreds had gathered at the Malieveld in The Hague on Saturday after a young woman, known as "Els Rechts" (translates to "Els Right"), issued a call on social media to protest against immigration and demand stricter asylum laws.

Following the clashes, "Els Rechts" quickly denounced the violence that had erupted.

"I assumed that people came to demonstrate peacefully, but unfortunately, for whatever reason, it turned out very differently," she wrote on X, adding that she would not have organised the demonstration if she had known its outcome.

The protest comes weeks before the Netherlands is set to hold a snap election on 29 October, after the country's ruling government collapsed when far-right Party For Freedom (PVV) leader Geert Wilders withdrew his ministers over disagreements on migration policy.

Wilders, who had declined an invitation to speak at the demonstration, condemned the violence as "unacceptable".