Mayors, united in the Security Council, will write to Minister Graberhaus tonight that they want “a ban on the sale of fireworks as well as their lighting”. “The main reason is that healthcare and healthcare workers are currently under severe pressure as a result of the Corona crisis.”
Is there a high probability that the ban will come?
The letter was co-signed by Mayor of The Hague Jan van Zaanen, who is also president of VNG, the union of Dutch municipalities.
Political commentator Fritz Wester has stated that the cabinet is “sensitive” to the mayors’ message. “Given the penetrating and broad unanimous call by mayors to draw one line at the national level and thus prevent additional pressure on healthcare and also to prevent the application of a regulation that is different in one municipality or district than the other, I think there is a good chance that the Cabinet will make a decision on banning fireworks” .
A group of doctors and health care providers are also in favor of the ban
Wester also states that potential fireworks tourists should be discouraged. “This way you prevent these people from moving from one neighborhood to another and from one village to another.” Wester says it “seems” that the cabinet is very sensitive to mayors’ arguments.
A group of doctors, health care providers and social organizations have endorsed a ban on fireworks this year. For example, the KNMG doctors’ union, FNV Zorg en Welzijn and the professional organization NU’91 are concerned about the pressure on care that the old and the new will bring.
The current pressure on health care
The Dutch Ophthalmological Society is also in favor of the ban, CEO Gerd de Vabre told RTL Nieuws last week. “Last New Year’s Eve showed: With a ban you have 75 percent fewer injuries. Think eyes, burning hands, that kind of thing. Medical evidence is given, ban works,” Faber says. He has already been in favor of banning fireworks, but the current pressure on health care is an important additional argument for him.
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