Keeping the red lights on
The debate over the erotic center is a battle for Amsterdam's soul
On Thursday, the Amsterdam City Council debated Mayor Femke Halsema’s plan to relocate De Wallen, known worldwide as the Red Light District, outside of the historic heart of the city . It was interrupted shortly after beginning due to groaning sounds coming from a suspicious speaker, leading to fears of a potential bomb and the evacuation of the room.
The debate resumed two hours later. The incident highlighted once again the plan’s contentious nature and the nervousness it provokes. The controversy surrounding the plan goes beyond its mere location; it has sparked a broader debate over Amsterdam’s identity.
Halsema’s proposal aims to remove the iconic window brothels to mitigate the nuisances caused by the hoards of tourists in the neighborhoud. Home to less than one million residents, the city draws around 20 million tourists annually, a figure that has almost doubled since 2010. This influx has transformed the historic city centre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, into a tourist ghetto, with many residents raising concerns over the quality of life and safety.
“Prostitution in itself does not cause nuisance,” Halsema said during the debate on Thursday, pointing out that the problems are caused by the “lookers who come in large numbers to watch the Red Light District.” Halsema hopes that removing the sex windows will attract fewer tourists, and reduce nuisance.
Her plan to push away tourists from De Wallen is to remove the window brothels and replace them with an erotic centre on the city’s outskirts. This high-rise would feature around 100 indoor window brothels for sex workers, where visitors can only enter via a secure entrance. After months of controversy, Europaboulevard in Zuid was chosen in December as the ideal location as it is far from residential areas and easily accessible by public transport.
There are currently around 240 sex windows in the Red Light District, and it remains unclear how many will have to close. It is also unclear how much sex workers will be charged for rent or how the project will be financed since the city will rely on private investors to fund the construction and operate the place.
Residents, business owners, and district councillors from the area where it is planned to be built are obviously not happy with the plan. However, the fiercest opposition comes from those directly affected, whose perspectives have been largely overlooked: the sex workers themselves
Sex workers in De Wallen have clearly indicated on multiple occasions they do not want to leave the city centre, with research showing that about 90% want to continue working in the Red Light District. They fear the erotic centre will, among other things, undermine their working conditions, overall safety, and sense of community. According to them, window prostitution remains the safest work environment, as the bustling Wallen offers visibility, social control, and solidarity. They also contend that relocating sex work to a secluded building out of sight could further stigmatise their profession.
Sex workers have long maintained that closing window brothels will not solve the issues related to tourism, as the majority of tourists do not visit De Wallen for sex work. A survey found that only 3% of tourists would stop visiting De Wallen if there were no sex workers.
Overall, sex workers argue that they are being stigmatised and blamed for problems they did not create. Prostitution has been a part of De Wallen for over 500 years, dating back to when Amsterdam became a bustling port city frequented by numerous sailors, which led to the establishment of many brothels near the harbour. The city has historically adopted a relatively relaxed attitude towards prostitution, neither officially prohibiting nor formally sanctioning it, tolerating the practice as long as it did not cause any disturbances.
After a strong lobby by Christian organisations and political parties, a brothel ban was instituted at the end of the 19th century, moving prostitution to hotels, boarding houses, and private homes in De Wallen. As it also became illegal for sex workers to stand in doorways to seduce men, they began sitting in front of windows on the ground floor to lure them in — leading to the start of window prostitution as we know it today.
The late 20th century saw significant improvements in sex workers’ conditions through increased tolerance, legalisation, and professionalisation. The brothel ban was lifted in 2000, and today, sex workers in De Wallen are licensed and self-employed workers paying taxes. In short, prostitution has never been as safe in De Wallen as today.
However, since 2008, a more repressive stance on sex work has gained traction, with nearly half of the windows closed over the past two decades. This shift was notably propelled by Project 1012, initiated in 2007 by PvdA politician Lodewijk Asscher, aiming to clean up the neighbourhood. The initiative propagated the belief that most sex workers were victims of trafficking and that buying up spaces associated with crime would push crime away.
The project, fueled by both public and private funding, led to the replacement of some hundred window brothels and dozens of coffee shops with gourmet restaurants, high-end fashion stores, and artisan coffee houses. Yet, according to report, Project 1012 has achieved only slight reductions in crime, and has been labelled as a spectacular failure in the media.
Many now view the erotic centre as another strategy to sanitise De Wallen and capitalise on its valuable real estate. Since her appointment in 2018, Halsema has been pushing a broader effort to smooth out its rough edges. Restrictions have been placed, including bans on guided tours, street music, and alcohol sales in supermarkets. Recent measures included earlier closing times for bars and window brothels, a ban on smoking cannabis outdoors, and even online campaigns designed to deter rowdy tourists from coming to Amsterdam. “Crass tourism is killing the city,” Mayor Halsema stated in an interview to justify this cleanup bid.
Critics view this strategy as a gentrification effort aimed at reducing the influx of budget travellers in favour of ‘high-end’ tourists, a trend increasingly evident across Europe. “More and more cities are raked, polished, and refurbished for the quality tourist, with expensive shops and restaurants. Amsterdam is following that trend,” observes René Boer, an urban researcher and Red Light District resident. He has explored this new urban phenomenon in his book Smooth City.
Boer argues that sanitation may not effectively address the nuisance in De Wallen, as the people behind these plans do not look at the root causes of the problem. “They continue to blame coffee shop owners, sex workers, and the relatively poor, young international visitors looking for a good time, instead of the policies which brought about the tsunami of mass tourism in the first place,” he writes in his book.
The Amsterdam metropolitan area has seen a near doubling of hotel beds over the last decade, along with aggressive marketing efforts from the municipality to attract more visitors to fill up the coffers in the aftermath the financial crisis. This, combined with a laissez-faire attitude towards opportunistic entrepreneurs, has led to a monoculture of tourist-oriented businesses in De Wallen, with waffle stores, sex shops, and souvenir stores popping up at every corner.
The municipality has therefore not only rolled out the red carpet for mass tourism in De Wallen but has also contributed to its ‘Disneyfication’, turning it into a commercial playground, a theme park of vulgar commercialism. This has evidently spiralled out of control, and sex workers have unfairly become the convenient scapegoats.
“The municipality has never been against tourism. It just wants a different kind of tourist: one with a bigger wallet,” the squatters’ collective Mokum Kraakt stated following their occupation of vacant window brothels last month in protest against the erotic centre. They worry that De Wallen could become “a sanitised shopping centre for the affluent” under Halsema’s plan, making the neighbourhood less accessible and affordable for Amsterdammers. “We refuse to accept this and will therefore sabotage every effort towards the establishment of the erotic centre.”
De Wallen remains to this day a vibrant urban mosaic, a lively area with tight-knit communities where diverse worlds coexist and collide, and represents the last bit of unpolished urban space in the city. There is concern that the cleanup will ultimately erode its lively diversity and unique charm. Or as architecture critic Mark Minkjan notes, “It signifies the direction in which Amsterdam is going: it’s on its way to becoming an incredibly liveable, comfortable, clean and pretty city; but of course, the cost is its soul.”
During the debate on Thursday, Halsema indicated that the erotic centre would probably not open before 2031. The city council’s approval of the plan is still pending a vote and remains uncertain. However, regardless of whether the plan comes to fruition, it is clear that De Wallen will continue to grapple with mass tourism and gentrification — at the risk of losing its soul.
Formation: back to square one
The cabinet formation process entered a new phase on Wednesday – or, arguably, took a step back – with the far-right party PVV having to concede that its dream of a majority right-wing cabinet might not be feasible. It became clear during this week’s debate on the formation in the Tweede Kamer that PVV’s leader, Geert Wilders, finds himself with only one potential partner willing to join a cabinet, the agrarian populist party BBB. The centrist party NSC of Pieter Omtzigt remains extremely hesitant, citing concerns over finances and the rule of law, while the liberal-conservative party VVD is reluctant to enter a coalition with Wilders without the NSC. However, it was also evident this week that these four parties are not yet ready to abandon their hopes of working together. A new informateur has been appointed to explore the possibilities of cooperation, particularly through unconventional government forms such as a minority or an extra-parliamentary cabinet, where ministers would not be bound by party agreements and would seek variable majorities for their policies. There is also discussion of a more technocratic one (zakenkabinet), primarily formed with non-politicians, a variant not seen in the Netherlands since before World War II, although details remain vague. The new round of talks between the four parties is expected to last no longer than four weeks. Their strategy seems to be that until a right-wing coalition is definitively off the table, other options cannot be considered. Opposition parties from the left and centre have dubbed this ‘relationship therapy’ and are wondering how long this game will last. Their scepticism is not unfounded. Almost three months after the election, a new cabinet is still not in sight, with no plans negotiated and no compromises made. So what has it all been about this time?
No more F-35 parts to Israel
An appeals court ordered the Dutch government on Monday to halt the export of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel, citing “a clear risk of violations of international humanitarian law.” Although the Netherlands does not assemble or produce F-35s, the country hosts a storage facility where components made in the US are shipped to countries that operate the fighters, including Israel. A group of human rights organizations brought a civil suit against the Netherlands in December, arguing that authorities needed to reevaluate the export license, which dates back to 2016, in light of Israeli military actions in the Gaza Strip. The Dutch government said it would appeal the ruling to the country’s Supreme Court, arguing that halting F-35 parts deliveries undermines the government’s foreign policy decisions and risks trade deals with other countries involving jet components. This came as outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte was visiting Israel. Rutte has emerged as the European leader most vocally supporting Israel since the Hamas attack in October 2023 and has so far carefully avoided diverging from the American stance in the Israel-Gaza conflict – undoubtedly burnishing his transatlantic credentials to increase his chances of becoming the next NATO chief.
Tips
Article with a good overview of the potential paths forward for the cabinet formation process (Bart Meijer/Reuters)
Long-read examining the campaign of the PvdA-GroenLinks alliance during the last election in order to answer that not-so-simple question: was the leftwing cooperation a success or catastrophe? (Coen van der Ven/De Groene Amsterdammer)
Frans Hals’ blockbuster exhibition at the Rijksmuseum
Dutch painter Frans Hals is now under the spotlight with a major exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, which opened on Friday. This is the first major exhibition of his work since 1990. The exhibition showcases 48 works by the 17th-century master, who was born in Antwerp but moved as a kid to Haarlem, where he spent most of his life. Hals is known for his lively portraits. That’s basically all he did. Approximately 200 of his paintings are known, with people invariably playing the central role. His paintings are somewhat filled with characters that just look very Dutch – from their ostentatious modesty to their laughing faces, rosy cheeks, and raised glasses. Hals is mostly known for his ‘loose touch’ and rough painting style, something innovative at the time. “Frans Hals invented modern painting,” says the Rijksmuseum director in The Guardian. Hals became incredibly popular in the 19th century, admired by artists such as Manet, Courbet, and Van Gogh, who saw him as an Impressionist avant la lettre. Although he is today somewhat overshadowed by his contemporaries Vermeer and Rembrandt, commentators in Dutch media agree that this ‘blockbuster exhibition’ signals the museum’s intention to place Hals on the same pedestal. The exhibition in the Rijksmuseum will run until June 9. While it remains to be seen whether Hals will generate the same level of excitement as Vermeer last year, at least he is now receiving the attention he has long deserved.
Movie on Dutch war hero
De Vuurlinie is now available on Netflix as of this week. This film narrates the true story of Marco Kroon, a controversial Dutch war hero who was knighted in 2009 for his leadership during a peace mission in Afghanistan. Kroon’s reputation was tarnished in the years that follows his due to allegations of arms and drug trafficking, as well as his arrest for public urination and headbutting a police officer during Carnival in 2019. These incidents sparked public outcry and a widespread debate over who deserves to be considered a national hero. The movie follows Kroon’s difficult reintegration into civilian life in the Netherlands with his new status, interspersed with flashbacks to his experiences in Afghanistan. Released in cinemas in 2023, critics suggested the film is more of a rehabilitation than an objective portrayal, particularly since Kroon played a significant role in the filmmaking process. Nevertheless, the movie has been praised for its cast and its cinematography, which stands out as unusually spectacular for a Dutch movie with limited budget, particularly its depiction of wartime scenes in Afghanistan.
Tips
Watskeburt?! by hip-hop band De Jeugd Van Tegenwoordig has been named the greatest Dutch pop song by De Volkskrant. This is the story of how the song came to life 19 years ago. (Els de Grefte/De Volkskrant)
Dutch alternative pop singer Eefje de Visser just released a new single called Heimweh, the first song of her new album that will be released this year.
Slavernijmuseum on Java-eiland
The discussion surrounding it has spanned years, and it will be years before it opens. Yet this week marks an important milestone for the future National Slavery Museum (Nationaal Slavernijmuseum). After a year and a half of research, it was announced on Thursday that the museum will likely be located on the Java-eiland in Amsterdam and should “tell the whole story” of the Dutch history of slavery. This initiative is part of the Netherlands’ recent efforts to come to terms with its past; the Dutch played a major role in the transatlantic slave trade from the 16th to 19th centuries, with the Dutch West India Company transporting enslaved Africans to the Americas to work in plantations. Up to a million people were traded in Asia under the authority of the Dutch East India Company. In December 2022, Prime Minister Mark Rutte formally apologised for the Dutch state’s involvement in the slavery trade, describing the apology as “a comma, not a full stop.” He emphasised that the future slavery museum would play a crucial role in this process. €200 million have been set aside to raise awareness of the Dutch trade in human beings and its consequences in modern society, including €27 million for the museum. It is expected to open in 2030.
Spotlight on duo euthanasia
The former Dutch Prime Minister, Dries van Agt, passed away “hand in hand” with his wife through duo euthanasia last Sunday at the age of 93. Both faced serious health issues and had been together for more than 70 years. Their passing was widely publicised in Dutch media, shedding light on the concept of duo euthanasia – a practice that remains relatively unknown to the general public, with 29 couples having chosen this path in the country in 2022. The Netherlands was the first country to legalise euthanasia in 2002, reflecting its liberal tradition and strong belief in personal freedom, although the practice has been tolerated since 1985. Van Agt’s decision to end his life through euthanasia is particularly noteworthy, given that he was a devout Roman Catholic and the first leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), a party not really known for its progressive views on ethical questions.
Tips
Great long-read on how drug waste is destroying Dutch nature, with reportage in Noord-Brabant (Gordon Darroch/Dutch News)
This website compiles photos of distinctive typography found on store logos, street signs, and building names throughout Amsterdam (amsterdamtypography.nl). Het Parool conducted an interview with Arno Verweij, the mind behind this project.
Cartoon of the week
The Great Helmsman
