Dutch strong on freedom despite spike

The Hague – Even before it became a hotspot for omicron variant cases, the Netherlands was one of the countries worst hit by the latest wave of Covid.

Experts say that the spike despite an 85% adult vaccination rate is partly due to very Dutch ideas of personal freedom.

Masks often remain unworn and Covid passes unchecked as the government shies away from enforcing its guidelines.

This approach reflects a long-standing reliance on a “social contract” between citizens and authorities to keep the nation’s head above the waves.

At the start of the pandemic, Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced an “intelligent lockdown” that was more lax than much of Europe.

“We don’t work like that in the Netherlands, where the government says ‘you have to do this, you have to do that’,” Rutte said in March 2020.

At first the Dutch, used to a highly consensual political system, complied.

“We were shoulder to shoulder against the virus,” recalls Mark Bonten, an epidemiologist and government advisor.

But things have changed since then, with the increasingly unpopular Dutch government caught in a cycle of lifting restrictions too quickly, and then reimposing them.

Cases recently soared to record daily levels of more than 20 000 cases in a country of 17 million people. The Netherlands had the fourth-most cases per 100 000 inhabitants in Europe over the past week, according to an AFP database.

Hospital intensive care units have become overwhelmed, operations have been cancelled while the army has been brought in to help.

It has also suffered some of its worst riots in decades, most recently when violence erupted in several cities last month.

The goodwill towards the government’s restrictions has “dramatically eroded”, Bonten said.

“Dutch people cherish their autonomy.

“Free will is in the nature of the country.”

“There is aversion to the rules, and aversion from the people in power to enforce the rules,” epidemiologist Frits Rosendaal said. “This is just behaviour.”