After house calls and highway blockades, political parties struggle with the treatment of protesting farmers. Breaking the law is not allowed, yet the farmer’s sympathy is great.
Niels Klaassen, Marcia Nieuwenhuis
Latest update:
28-06-22, 20:23
Dozens of demonstrating farmers parked their tractors on Tuesday in a long line on the verge at the entrance of the House of Representatives in The Hague. They also dragged two cows up the sidewalk. The message from the farmers is simple: the nitrogen plans must be thrown into the trash, otherwise half of the livestock is in danger of disappearing. So responsible minister Christianne van der Wal (VVD) could already ‘choose between Klaartje and Betsie’, the two cows. The VVD minister was not tempted to do so: “It doesn’t work that simple.” According to the cabinet, a third of the livestock will shrink if the nitrogen plans go ahead, not half.
A little later, a majority of the House of Representatives voted in favor of the cabinet plans, although – unlike outside – this was accompanied by the many nuances surrounding the nitrogen dossier. Coalition MPs talked about the critical deposition values, area-oriented approaches and provincial customization.
It seems that many farmers and their political allies are not interested in that. Although various members of the ‘pro-farmers’ coalition’ – PVV, Forum for Democracy, JA21, Group van Haga, SGP, BBB – are in the stomach with excesses during the farmer demonstrations. Although there is a lot of social support for the sentiment among affected farmers, the line is thin. A large part of the Dutch, for example, rejects home visits to ministers, even highway blockades that cause hours-long traffic jams are not a good idea for many.
The undisputed leader of the nitrogen opposition Caroline van der Plas is also aware of this. During a smoke break at the farmer’s demonstration, she distances herself from the actions that affect civilians. “I would hate it if citizens cannot go to the hospital due to a highway block, or if there is no food in the supermarket. And visiting people at home is intimidating.”
But there is something ambiguous in the disapproval, if she does applaud ‘sharp actions’ a little later. ,,Look back in the 80s and 90s, the actions were much harder then. That is also important: you have to be heard and seen. You have to stay within the bounds of the law. But there are people going over the edge, you can’t prevent that. People want to be heard.”
BBB benefits from nitrogen discussion
Van der Plas’ BBB clearly benefits electorally from the nitrogen discussion. A large group of current BBB voters (42 percent) say they mainly vote for that party in protest against government policy. BBB – now one seat in the House of Representatives – rises to 12 seats and has passed the CDA (9 seats), according to the latest seat poll by One today and Ipsos. The party of Caroline van der Plas takes voters away from the CDA and the VVD. But it is mainly non-voters who find their way to the BBB this month.
For Van der Plas it is also a matter of balancing between sympathizing and norming. Yesterday morning she called on the farmers not to block the highways, if necessary they could occupy overpasses. A similar struggle was heard at the SGP, following the brutal felling of a hundred pollard willows the day before, by a farmer in the Krimpenerwaard. The farmer who cut down the pollard willows is also an SGP councilor, and the neighborhood and nature organizations reacted furiously.
But SGP nitrogen spokesman Roelof Bisschop was much more careful and called it ‘not my choice’ yesterday afternoon: ,,We are not talking about it. Look: he didn’t do anything illegal, they were his own trees on his own property, no felling permit was needed. I would not have chosen it myself, he now also says: if it were interpreted as destroying nature, I would not have done it.”
Bisschop and Van der Plas would rather see ‘sharp and playful actions’ such as the day before in Winterswijk, where farmers declared a piece of nature reserve ‘Germany’, so that the strict Dutch nitrogen regulations would not be in force. “Nice, with such a border box,” says Bisschop.
In coalition parties, those involved mainly hope that the nitrogen spirit will go back into the bottle. CDA and VVD expect that the large bag of money of 25 billion euros and customization will calm things down again. It sounds unctuous in the coalition: ‘that is such a large amount that we should get out of it’. ‘There must be some rest and time’, is the invocation formula at a coalition source.
Watch our videos about the farmers’ protests here:
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