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reThe Netherlands is reacting with new measures to the increasing number of infections, which are among the highest in Europe. Starting Wednesday night, restaurants, pubs, cafes, and coffee shops across the country will be closed for the first four weeks. The innkeepers will be partially compensated for this. Alcohol cannot be sold in stores after 8 pm A household can host a maximum of three guests. Adult contact sports will be restricted, professional team soccer matches must continue without spectators. Restrictions must be checked after two weeks.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte spoke of a “partial lockdown” when he presented the measures Tuesday night. Health Minister Hugo de Jonge threatened to impose a “total closure” if they did not have sufficient effect. The government wants the use of protective face and nose masks to be mandatory indoors, but only on a new legal basis. “We have to regulate this legally,” Rutte said. Medically they make sense.
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With almost 7,000 new cases of contagion, the country reported a new record on Tuesday; during the first wave of the pandemic it was a maximum of 1,300 per day. Regarding the incidence value, the Netherlands has surpassed Spain and ranks third in the European Union (387), behind Belgium (430) and the Czech Republic (522); Germany, on the other hand, only gets 51 positive tests per 100,000 inhabitants in 14 days. The proportion of positive tests in all tests rose to 14 percent. De Jonge said the virus was spreading so fast that contact tracing couldn’t keep up. A goal was set to reduce the reproduction rate from 1.3 to 0.8 before restrictions could be replaced by local measures.
The government’s reluctance to wear protective masks has been linked to constitutional and political concerns. An expert panel, the so-called Outbreak Management Team, advised against imposing a blanket mask requirement in July. Then the government left it up to the mayors to make local arrangements. The big cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague used it; Protective masks are a must on busy shopping streets, both indoors and outdoors. The courts considered the requirements to be legal, but only due to local limitation.
Dramatically enforcing crown rules in the Netherlands: Prime Minister Mark Rutte
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Image: dpa
The basic problem in the Netherlands is that, unlike its neighbors, it still does not have an infection protection law that allows the government to intervene in basic rights for reasons of protection of public health. Since the beginning of the pandemic, all restrictions have been enforced with emergency regulations. This also applies to the new measures that Rutte announced Tuesday night. Constitutional lawyers argue that an emergency ordinance cannot enforce a general mask requirement because it would violate articles 10 (right to privacy) and 11 (right to physical integrity) of the constitution. “Without a legal basis, the government cannot prescribe clothing for citizens,” says Jan Brouwer, professor of law at the University of Groningen.
The government only introduced a crown protection law in parliament late last week, too late according to experts. It won’t happen to both houses of parliament before the end of November. Rutte’s hesitation had two reasons. Until recently, his health minister and his deputy denied that wearing a mask had any measurable medical effect. Also, Rutte’s legal liberals don’t want to thwart one of his flagship laws. Since August 1, 2019, covering your face in public spaces is prohibited in the Netherlands. This so-called anti-burqa law was directed against fundamentalist Muslims. Holland followed France and Belgium. The idea dates back to Geert Wilders, the founder of the right-wing populist “Party for Freedom.” Rutte pushed the law forward to take the wind out of his competitor’s sails.
In practice, it matters little. A maximum of 350 women are affected in a country with a good 17 million inhabitants. The police rarely impose fines of between 150 and 450 euros. But Muslim associations have already complained about “double standards” when protective masks were made mandatory on public transport during the first wave of pandemics.
Meanwhile, however, public pressure for a blanket mask requirement has increased significantly. In the Netherlands, a new parliament will be elected on March 17. “As soon as legally possible, everyone over the age of 13 must wear a mask indoors,” Rutte announced Tuesday. “We want to solve this once and for all.”
