Protestors against the ‘vestige of slavery’ featured in Christmas celebrations were blockaded on a motorway and an ‘action group’ invaded a school

An annual debate in the Netherlands about the Christmas season practice of white people blackening their faces, colouring their lips red and donning wigs to play Zwarte Piet, a sidekick to Saint Nicholas, has this year descended into street brawls, vandalism and a conviction for inciting racial hatred.



The characterisation of Zwarte Piet – or Black Pete – has divided Dutch society in recent years. In 2015 the UN stepped in to declare it was a “vestige of slavery”. Some major cities, including Amsterdam and The Hague, have refashioned Zwarte Piet’s image, or done away with him altogether, to avoid accusations of racism.

Others, however, continue to believe the character’s portrayal to be a harmless tradition. In a survey of 272 of the 388 Dutch municipalities, 239 said they would be sticking with the traditional image in 2017.

The blackened face is often explained away in those cases as a consequence of Zwarte Piet climbing sooty chimneys while helping Saint Nicholas deliver presents at a feast on the evening of 5 December. Opponents say that Zwarte Piet is instead a reference to slavery.

The difference of opinion has turned particularly ugly this year, however, with the involvement of the extreme right apparently helping to push local disputes into violence and vigilantism.

Last weekend, buses filled with those opposed to the traditional portrayal of Zwarte Piet were blocked on the motorway on their way to protest at an official “Sinterklaas arrival”, the point at which Saint Nicholas arrives in town with his sidekick to mark the start of the festive season.

Around 35 people, many thought to be members of extreme-right nationalist organisations, halted the convoy of 120 demonstrators on the motorway as they were about to make a legal protest in Dokkum, in the north of the country.

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The Dutch home affairs minister, Raymond Knops, responded by calling for pro-Zwarte Piet protesters to abide by the law. “I understand the emotions on this subject, but I cannot approve of people stopping everything on a highway,” he said. “Everyone must abide by the law, including these people.”

In a separate incident, this week 10 members of an “action group for the preservation of Zwarte Piet” invaded a primary school just before the end of the school day, dressed in the contentious garb, and handed out flyers and stickers. The school in Utrecht intends to file a charge of trespass against the intruders. It has celebrated the Sinterklaas festival without Zwarte Piet since 2015.



On Monday a 31-year-old man from Lelystad was sentenced to a 40-hour compulsory work order, 20 hours of which were suspended, for inciting racial hatred on the internet. He had said on social media that protesters at a welcoming parade in 2015 should be “put to work again as slaves”.

Two years ago the Dutch government said it would reflect on the character after a report from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination claimed that “the character of Black Pete is sometimes portrayed in a manner that reflects negative stereotypes of people of African descent and is experienced by many people of African descent as a vestige of slavery”. It had urged the Netherlands to “actively promote the elimination” of the racial stereotyping.