After receiving a letter threatening his company, Ben Timmermans, the director of road construction company Avitect infrastructure & environment, has announced that the business will withdraw from the Drentse Monden and Oostermoer Wind Park project.
Translation by Traci White
Dagblad van het Noorden reports that Timmermans and Groningen alderperson Fleur Gräper received threatening letters due to their involvement with plans to build a wind park in Drenthe. The letter addressed to Timmermans threatened to destroy his company if he did not cease his business’ involvement with the wind park.
The letter addressed to Gräper called for an end to the “corrupt” N33 wind park plans and threatened to escalate their resistance efforts. The letter implied that the group had access to a mobile system which could cause traffic chaos on the southern ring road in Groningen and junctions in the Randstad.
According to RTV Noord, the police are asking the general public to come forward with any information they may have connected to the threatening letters, including anonymous tips. A Large-Scale Investigation Team with 20 detectives and 70 officers is working on the ongoing wind park activism. The team is also investigating an incident in February when wind turbine activists spread asbestos near a train station in Delfzijl and left warning messages in the area.
In 2018, the Dutch National Anti-Terrorism and Safety Coordinator warned of the likelihood of “wind turbine terrorism” from groups opposed to construction of wind farms in the region. In the letter to Gräper, which was published in its entirety by the Dagblad, the group alluded to that warning: “In your eyes, we are terrorists. We disagree. We are resistance fighters. That wasn’t always the case. We used to be average citizens, but we have been deceived by farmers and public servants.”