(Amsterdam) Hundreds of sex workers and residents from north to south of Amsterdam demonstrated Thursday against a city hall plan to move prostitution from the famous Red Light District to an “erotic center” in the suburbs.
Crowds marched through the streets toward City Hall, with dozens of protesters wearing masks to hide their identities, some holding signs such as “Save the Red Light District” and chanting “don’t save us, save our windows.”
The town hall must define a location for this very controversial “erotic center” by the end of the year, which it justifies by the need to reduce nuisance and crime linked to mass tourism and revelers.
With wind rising against the prospect of seeing a “huge brothel” just a stone’s throw from their homes, residents living near the premises near the three possible locations for the center in the north and south of the city have unexpectedly joined the protest by sex workers, who wish to remain behind their scarlet neon windows near the canals of the historic center.
PHOTO JASPER JUINEN, THE NEW YORK TIMES ARCHIVES
“We’ve actually been protesting against the disappearance of windows for 16 years,” says Mariska Majoor, a former sex worker who defends the sector.
“In 2007, the reason (invoked by the municipality, editor’s note) was the fight against human trafficking and abuse and currently it is the fight against mass tourism,” she sighs.
“Biggest brothel in Europe”
A sex worker who identified herself only as Lucie considers that these plans hide “a major gentrification project”.
“It’s mainly about crowd fighting in De Wallen, but it’s not the sex workers’ fault, so I don’t see why we should be punished for this,” she added. ‘AFP.
In total, several hundred Amsterdammers marched to the city hall, estimated the Dutch press agency ANP.
“We don’t want the biggest brothel in Europe in our neighborhood,” Cynthia Cournuejouls, a 42-year-old mother living in the south of the city, told AFP.
The row has even involved the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which is strongly opposed to the fact that two of the proposed sites are close to its new headquarters south of Amsterdam.
The Dutch capital, which is trying to shed its “city of sin” image, has also launched an online campaign to discourage young Europeans from organizing stag parties or other party trips in the city.
After the outcry over the February selection of three potential locations to house the center, Mayor Femke Halsema slightly adjusted her plan in June, promising to reduce dining spaces in the building. The building must still accommodate around a hundred spaces intended for sex workers.
A concession far from reassuring: petitions opposing this project gathered nearly 22,000 signatures in September. According to a survey by the Amsterdam daily Het Parool in June, barely one person in 5 supports this “erotic center”.