Bomb Thrown Through Letterbox at Dutch PM Jetten's Party Headquarters in The Hague

An explosive device pushed through the letterbox of the headquarters of D66, the centrist liberal party of Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten, detonated late Thursday evening in The Hague, blowing out the front door and shattering ground-floor windows but causing no injuries. Police arrested a 37-year-old man at the scene. Roughly 30 people, most of them members of D66's youth wing, the Jonge Democraten, were holding a meeting inside when the firework-grade device went off shortly after 9 p.m.

"This is a cowardly act of intimidation," Jetten wrote on the social network Bluesky within an hour of the blast. "For those who think they can instill fear, I have a message: in the democratic Netherlands, we will never allow ourselves to be silenced by violence." Jetten, who became prime minister in November 2025 after D66 narrowly defeated Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom in snap elections, rushed back from the Catshuis residence and embraced young party staff in the street as fire crews damped down smoke pouring from the building's facade.

The fire brigade, which was on the scene within four minutes, said the device appeared to have been a heavy commercial-grade firework — possibly a so-called "Cobra 6" — modified to detonate on impact. The Dutch national counterterrorism coordinator, the NCTV, said it was monitoring the investigation but had so far seen "no indication of an organized plot." The arrested suspect, whose identity has not been released, will appear before a magistrate Saturday morning in The Hague district court.

Politicians from across the Dutch political spectrum condemned the attack within hours. Outgoing PVV leader Geert Wilders, normally one of D66's fiercest critics, wrote that "violence against any political party is violence against our democracy." Green-Left/PvdA leader Frans Timmermans called for a moment of silence in parliament Friday morning. King Willem-Alexander telephoned Jetten from Noordeinde Palace to express what the Royal House described as "the king's profound shock and his solidarity with the targeted party staff."

It is the second attack on the same D66 building in eight months. In September 2025, anti-immigration rioters rampaging through The Hague after a banned demonstration on the Malieveld smashed the headquarters' windows, set fire to a police vehicle outside and tried to storm the parliamentary complex a few blocks away. Three members of that crowd were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 18 months to four years. The Hague mayor Jan van Zanen, who has come under increasing criticism over his handling of political-violence incidents, said Friday that police presence outside all party headquarters in the city would be "significantly reinforced" through the weekend.