Natherlands

Police were ready and supermarkets closed their doors, but on Tuesday evening it was unclear if a controversial curfew in the Netherlands would be respected. Earlier in the day, a court ruled that the legal basis for the curfew was invalid: it rests on a particular type of emergency ruling when instead it should have gone to a vote in the lower house. This was, ruled the court in the Hague, ‘absolutely not’ the kind of situation for which the emergency law was intended, such as the breach of a dyke. Meanwhile, the court said the 9 p.m. to 4.30 a.m. curfew, which sparked nationwide hooliganism and riots after it was introduced

Images of Dutch rioters throwing stones and fireworks at police, looting shops and facing water cannon have been published all around the world. This is not the typical image of a nation that likes to think of itself as nuchter and normaal — sober and sensible — in contrast to other parts of Europe, it sees as impulsive or, even worse, undemocratic.  But in the last four nights, after the Netherlands imposed a 9 p.m. curfew to combat the spread of coronavirus, elements of the country appear to have gone entirely off-script. To the condemnation of national politicians, horrified businesses and huge numbers of normal people who have been in lockdown since