Lower thirds:

0:03 Report by / Rosie Birchard
0:36 Rosie Birchard / DW Correspondent

Script:

“No to NATO”

That’s the message at this anti-war demo in The Hague,

With leaders of western military alliance due to descend on the Dutch capital this week. 

SOT 1 woman
We need to raise our voices as the ordinary people in the world. We do not want war. We want to be a warless generation and that’s why I’m here.

In what they say is a bid to avoid war, many European NATO nations are beefing up their armies…

…plans massively sped up since Donald Trump took office. 

+++PTC Rosie+++
The United States has been pushing European governments to radically ramp up their defense spending and many have responded. Under new European Union rules, countries will have more fiscal flexibility for their military expenditure. 

The Dutch government and others say the budget hikes are essential to ensure less reliance on Washington…

And to deter Russian threats.

But these demonstrators are furious about the planned spending splurge, fearing other priorities will fall by the wayside.

SOT 1 woman
We cannot be justifying spending more on warfare and military spending, which includes increase of budgets on securitisation here in the Netherlands -- and decreasing the budgets for social and arts an education.

SOT 2 man
The actual future danger is the climate and ecological meltdown of our planet and we can’t face that and all of the real problems that we have to transform society if we put all of our money and energy into war.

While surveys show many Europeans do support the bid to boost military capacities,

It’s clear the rapid shift toward rearming is not universally adored…

And that fierce democratic debate still lies ahead.