Rob Roos has been a Dutch Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since July 2019 and is the present vice-chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR).
The Netherlands is probably one of the countries in Europe that is most committed to the green agenda. What damage are these policies doing?
Enormous damage. We had a lot of confinement in Europe because of COVID-19, and in the Netherlands we are still suffering from nitrogen confinement. We have the most restrictive energy regulation in Europe and for that reason we cannot build more houses or new infrastructure, and sometimes we are even prevented from repairing what we have. Our economy is in a straitjacket, and the damage being done is quite profound. This is not because nature is at risk, but because the models they follow show that nature is at risk. Those responsible for these policies are the Greens, but also the liberals led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who seem to want to transform our country into a nature park.
This madness is the responsibility of politicians, mostly young and well-educated with good social skills, born and raised in the cities, who tell our farmers how they should live. It is ridiculous. We are a very small country, and these policies have a tremendous economic cost. We are losing our ability to make money or to invest in new homes, which will mean a darker future for our children, so we are not a good example for Spain or any other country.
Is this economic cost being passed on to the citizen’s pocket, as is happening, for example, in Germany, where green policies are increasingly being rejected?
Yes, the energy transition leads to very high energy costs, but there is also an obligation to retrofit houses—this is a European law—to convert farms or to buy electric cars. At the end of the day, it is all about freedom. An electric car is very expensive, and many citizens cannot afford [to buy one]. Small businesses can no longer enter cities because they cannot afford an electric van and are forced to close their doors. The cost of living goes up, and the possibilities of making money go down. And meanwhile, the media pushes this green agenda in the most cavalier fashion because the vast majority of journalists are leftists raised in big cities. They lack any connection to the rural world and therefore feel free to blame our farmers, without taking even the slightest interest in their day-to-day reality. The Netherlands is the second largest food industry [in the world by exports] after the United States. We are a small but very efficient country. Those who say we have to save the planet, do they think it is good for the planet that there is no food or that it is better to produce it somewhere else that is not so efficient?
Also, over the last thirty years Dutch farmers have reduced emissions by 67%, two-thirds of the total, precisely because of their receptivity to forms of technological innovation. It is crazy to blame them for modern problems that they did not create. It’s very easy to act based on hazy worst-case-scenarios of what’s going to happen in 15 or 20 years because no politician making such self-destructive policies today will be around to be held accountable.
Those who do not produce blame those who produce… They forget very quickly the consequences of the shortage of European production during the pandemic.
That’s right. What we have learned—or at any rate should have learned—from COVID-19 is the importance of strategic autonomy. We cannot depend on other countries for medicines, all kinds of products and especially food. In Europe, we should be able to produce the products we need and our food. And it is crazy that not only the Netherlands, but also Spain, Ireland, and other countries want to wipe out their farmers. It is an agenda. And if one of their goals is to end hunger, how are they going to do it without farmers? In the end, what this agenda seeks to do is to make people more dependent on the state. And farmers, who own small businesses and have long traditions, have serious problems. Every twelve days a farmer commits suicide in the Netherlands, and our government, whose ultimate goal is to expropriate their land entirely, is plunging them into financial trouble, demanding investments for environmental measures that are never enough.
Precisely, the answer to these policies has been the emergence of the Farmers’ Party, which recently achieved a great electoral result. Do you think it is possible that a real alternative can emerge from this party or, as in many cases, will it only be a shooting star?
I think they can be an alternative because they are very serious about building the party. For me, they are a potential replacement to the old Christian Democrats. People in the Netherlands are really looking for a party with common sense and that’s what the farmers have brought. So far they have been a stable party, they are popular and they are not leftists, and they are doing a good job and not only on issues concerning the countryside. They are also attracting specialists from other sectors to be able to cover more issues. They are serious and I think they are on the right track.
Would it be possible for the right-wing parties to join forces with this party or forge some kind of collaboration?
In the Netherlands we have 20 political parties, and there are only 150 seats, so no party can get an absolute majority, and we are all forced to form coalition governments. So, I don’t think it will be possible to form a big party for the European elections. In my opinion, it is difficult to talk about rightists and leftists; I think it is more appropriate to talk about sovereigntists and globalists. Those who are proud of their country and want it to prosper, and the globalists who do not want borders. I believe that, in the end, the sovereigntists must cooperate if we want to offer resistance to the globalist parties. It is difficult, but it is necessary and not only in my country, but all over Europe. We must be united, brave and not let the globalists divide us.
What is at stake in next year’s European elections? Do you believe that a change of majority is possible that could lead the EU out of its current progressive drift?
Yes, I am positive about it. What we see now is that green policies don’t work and make people’s lives more expensive and difficult, but I think most Europeans don’t realise that once a law is adopted in Europe, we can’t get rid of it in our own countries. Many sovereigntists are not interested in European elections, and they should be. Now we have a very globalist parliament and a European Commission pushing legislation that makes it stronger and stronger, and we have to stop this. I think it is possible, but it is very necessary for ECR to become the third political group, to be the second would be very good and fortunate, but to become the third at the very least is absolutely necessary so that the EPP does not join Renew and the socialists as it has done before. This is our last chance to change things because everything is going very fast. We see the case of Germany where big companies are leaving the country because of high energy prices and excessive legislation. We must stop this ideology before it sinks our economy.
You proved that the COVID passport was based on a lie, yet no one in the EU has admitted the mistake, let alone resigned. Does this case not deprive the EU of any legitimacy when it talks about the rule of law against countries like Poland and Hungary?
They have double standards, and if you look at what the rule of law is in the European Union, in the Commission, you will see that there is no transparency whatsoever. We have seen Von der Leyen’s text messages and the million-dollar contracts with Pfizer, but they have not answered any questions on this matter. As far as I can see, they don’t care about the rule of law, only about achieving their political goals. That is why the attack on two countries like Hungary and Poland, because they defend their sovereignty and are led by conservative governments which have been democratically elected. In the Netherlands, the rule of law is in very bad shape, but that does not concern the European Commission.
After what happened with the COVID passport, do you think they will impose a CO2 passport to control what we pollute?
This is something we must prevent from happening. I was in the discussions about the digital identity wallet before the COVID passport, and our health minister said it would not be used domestically. A month later, we needed the Covid passport to be able to go to a bar, to a restaurant, to the gym… It was institutional discrimination. So we can’t trust when governments tell us, ‘this will never happen.’ It’s not a conspiracy theory: when governments have a tool to reduce people’s freedom, they use it. We have seen it many times. The CO2 passport is a tool that can usher in a totalitarian state, and it is very easy to do, especially when you combine it with a central bank digital currency, as they have done in China. Everyone who loves freedom must oppose this.
Or else we will have a Chinese model in Europe.
No one voted for this. Also, if we achieve their 2050 targets, we will only have a 0.04 degree reduction if China and India do nothing. In other words, we do not make a difference. So why lose our freedoms? Why impoverish ourselves and make life harder for consumers and small businesses? What they are doing is making people more dependent on the state. It’s a new model of socialism in a more technocratic form, but if we’re not vigilant, it could lead us to communism.
