Only if the following conditions are met will the VVD support a ban on fireworks to protect our emergency services and police:

1. An effective enforcement plan from the police and municipalities will be implemented. We demand that the government intensify the enforcement against illegal fireworks immediately and comprehensively. We expect visible efforts from the cities that previously imposed a ban on fireworks.
2. A safe New Years Eve does not completely exclude fireworks. The law will establish that the mayor can grant an exemption to a local association that sets off consumer fireworks for the neighborhood. We will also promote local fireworks shows.
3. Entrepreneurs must not suffer. The sector must be compensated in a fair and proper manner.

Explanation 

After the last New Years Eve, as in previous years, the social debate about violence against police and emergency services has flared up again. For most people, New Years Eve is a pleasant evening with family and friends, where the lighting and viewing of fireworks is a beautiful part of the celebration. However, for our police officers and emergency responders, it requires enormous operational effort and year after year there are excesses. These excesses are not solely due to fireworks, but they are related to fireworks, particularly illegal fireworks.

The VVD has always stood for our fireworks tradition and for the protection of our police and emergency responders. That is why we have repeatedly taken the initiative to keep fireworks manageable.
In 2020, all firecrackers and rockets were banned. The times for lighting and selling fireworks have been limited. In 2023, we presented an initiative note to better combat illegal fireworks with a focus on stricter enforcement and harsher penalties. Over the past few years, we have truly pulled out all the stops to preserve the enjoyment of display fireworks and to clear the mess that emergency responders are pelted with from the streets.

However, we must conclude that it is not sufficient to ensure that police and emergency responders can perform their duties normally on New Years Eve. Consequently, the calls from individual officers and emergency responders for a total ban on fireworks are increasing. And we are not deaf to that call.

What we all want is a New Years Eve with as few incidents as possible, where everyone can enjoy fireworks and emergency responders can do their work safely. To achieve that, we must do things differently than have been tried in previous years. We stand firmly by our police and emergency responders. They indicate that with a complete ban on lighting and selling fireworks, the situation can indeed be manageable. This will have to be proven. That is the reason that effective enforcement is the first condition of the VVD to take this step.

If the conditions are met, we can take this step to organize New Years Eve differently. When and from which New Years Eve that will be the case still needs to be determined based on how these conditions are fulfilled. We want the House of Representatives to have the opportunity to assess whether these conditions have been met before a ban actually comes into effect.