Over half of the Dutch population believes face masks should be mandatory in public indoor areas.
These results come from a weekly poll conducted by Maurice De Hond. The idea of mandatory face masks seems to be echoed throughout the entire political spectrum, except for far-right political parties. For example, respondents from CDA and PvdA show overwhelming support for mandatory face masks ( almost 65%). On the other end, Forum for Democracy and the PVV showed less enthusiasm, with 40% and 36% support respectively.
Part of the reason why support for face masks in public indoor areas has gone up can potentially be explained by the surge of coronavirus cases of last week.
The survey showed that 41% of respondents feel that some of the relaxations of the coronavirus measures (which started on 1 July) should be reversed. Politically speaking, more than half of the supporters of ChristenUnie, GroenLinks, CDA, SP and 50Plus want the relaxation to be stopped. Half of the supporters of FVD and PVV want the relaxation to continue.
Last Friday, the TV program EenVandaag also conducted their separate poll on the issue, reporting that two out of three people believe that face masks should be mandatory in public indoor spaces in case coronavirus infections continue to rise. Last week, the mayors of Amsterdam and Rotterdam have also called for research into implementing mandatory face masks in some settings.
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