The pink rabbit is dead drunk and speaks English: “How much?” yells the young man in the bright pink party suit in front of the red-lit window in Amsterdam, cheered on by his buddies. When he cannot come to an agreement with the woman in the neon-green bikini, the group staggers on. Miriam knows these bachelor parties all too well. The Romanian is a prostitute in Amsterdam: “They just watch, smoke pot and drink.”
The tourist season kicks off at Easter, and tens of thousands of people make their way down the narrow canals in the oldest part of Amsterdam, right in the middle of the Unesco World Heritage Site. “De Wallen” is the name of the district, world-famous for the windows in which women in particular offer sex. This has been the case for hundreds of years, but for how much longer?
The city wants to outsource prostitution to end the problems caused by mass tourism. An “erotic center” is to be built outside the city center – a high-rise building with 100 workplaces, pubs, clubs and sex theatres. When and where it will be built is not yet clear. But there is massive resistance.
“That’s bullshit,” says Anna from Bulgaria. She had already worked in such a center abroad. “It’s confusing there, there’s no social control.” A good 200 prostitutes recently marched to City Hall and presented Mayor Femke Halsema with a petition demanding: “Hands off De Wallen.” They also want to be heard.
The sex trade is to give way because the district is threatening to go under under the weight of mass tourism. More than 22 million people visit the capital with around 800,000 inhabitants every year. And most of them also come to the red light district. “This part of the city is in danger of becoming uninhabitable,” the green mayor said.
Above all, the sheer endless mass of young men drinking and smoking weed makes the quarter hell for residents. “Every morning I can clean up the puke in front of my door,” said a resident of the TV station AT5. Aggressive dealers and pickpockets dominate the scene. Men use the canals as public toilets.
“The problems are not caused by the sex workers,” says Mayor Halsema, “but by excessive tourism and crime.”
“Then finally do something,” says the interest group Red Light United. “Grab the dealers, the tourists – but not the sex workers.”
At least the British party tourists are now in the sights of the city. She has now launched the “Stay Away” campaign. In videos on the Internet, those who only want to drink alcohol and smoke pot are recommended to look for another destination.
But the sex trade is the main attraction for many. Therefore, the opening hours have already been shortened. Not only for the pubs, but also the sex workers have to close the windows from three o’clock – three hours earlier than before.
For many, this is a financial drama. “We don’t start earning until midnight. Then it gets quieter,” says Miriam. She has to pay 180 euros a day for a window, which she usually only gets after three or four customers. Only then does she earn her own bread.
“The city is running a fumigation strategy,” says Felicia Anne of Red Light United. The women would end up being forced to work in the erotic center. “The windows on the ramparts are safer because the curtains are open and a lot of people are walking on the street.”
The city has three locations in mind for the “mega brothel”, as local residents call it. In the north and in the chic south of the city, right next to the financial district. The resistance is great. Local residents fear that De Wallen’s problem will only shift, and that roaring party tourists and aggressive street dealers will move with it.
“Then our beautiful neighborhood will be overrun by sex-hungry cheaters,” said 48-year-old Marcel at a protest meeting of residents in Amsterdam-South. “Does my eleven-year-old daughter have to grow up next to the largest brothel in Europe?” asked a horrified woman.
The residents have an unusual ally in the EU medicines agency EMA. She moved into her new home in the south of the city just a few years ago – just a few hundred meters from two possible locations. Horrified, the EMA turned on the EU Commission. She fears “drug dealing, drunkenness and disorderly conduct” in the neighborhood.
“I can only say again and again that no drunk Brits will come,” the mayor promises the residents. She advertises the erotic center: “It combines culture and sex – a center with class.” But nobody really believes her. “De Wallen as we know it,” says one pub owner, “they will disappear”.
