A 50-year-old anti-vaccination activist administered a Facebook group with 10,000 followers, which had shared a call for a demonstration in Rotterdam that later turned violent.
When COVID-19 riots rocked the Netherlands for the second time in a year, Ricardo Pronk was there to livestream it all to his followers on social media.
The 50-year-old anti-vaccination activist administered a Facebook group with 10,000 followers, which had shared a call for a demonstration in the port city of Rotterdam on Nov. 19 that later turned violent.
The group, which was recently removed by Facebook, is part of a network of conspiracy theorists and COVID-19-deniers on social media that reached as far as the Dutch parliament, whose influence has sparked concern among experts.
For Pronk, vaccines “are weapons made to kill.”
Pressure is mounting on Dutch political leaders to put together a coalition government, which after 226 days on Friday became the longest formation talks on record in the Netherlands.
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