Parliamentary reporter Elif Astman attends the debate. Follow her live via her tweets at the bottom of this post.
Last Friday, the Cabinet decided the “evening closure.” Apart from the basic stores, the entire country is closed after 5pm. The question is whether the evening stopwatch will be able to turn the tide, especially now that the more contagious omicron variant has been in the Netherlands for some time.
The room has doubts about stopping sports after 5 pm
A large part of the House does not agree that amateur sports are not allowed after 5 pm. D66, CDA, SP, DENK, GroenLinks and JA21 want to know from the outgoing cabinet, among others, what impact to expect, according to discussions about the coronavirus measures that have been tightened since Sunday.
SP argues in favor of excluding outdoor sports from the five-hour scale in any case. GroenLinks is also on this line and points out several restrictions that have been implemented for amateur athletes. “Contests are now allowed, but courses are not,” said Lisa Westerfeld, Member of Parliament at GroenLinks, wondering how the effects of these kinds of measures are measured. The CDA has suggested whether it is possible for young adults up to age 21 to exercise after 5 p.m.
D66 Rep Jan Paternotte also wonders if early shutdowns are good for athletes. He points out that this means that more people are in the changing rooms during the day and that there is less spread.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte says that excluding amateur sports is a bad idea. This again means that large groups will be moving, “a lot of movement and communication”. If the House of Representatives wants it, I also want to know what measures we’ll add. Otherwise, we will fall under OMT’s advice.”
