Members of the Dutch government called for alterations in the Green Agenda after the recent victory of the pro-farmer party BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB) in the provincial elections. The BBB, which based its support on fighting damaging environmentalist policies, will now become the biggest party in the provinces as well as the Senate.
This means the Netherlands’ pro-EU governing coalition must choose between revising its green policy, as called for by voters, and facing gridlock.
“We can’t go back to the order of the day,” said Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra on Friday, March 17th. “There is a gaping hole between the Binnenhof (the Dutch Parliament) and the rest of the Netherlands.”
In the regional governments, the BBB said it will not enforce any anti-farmer laws. The BBB’s rise is the result of policies that threatened to close thousands of farms, as the Dutch government followed EU plans to halve nitrogen emissions by 2030. This provoked an outbreak of farmer’s protests, leading to the BBB’s electoral landslide on March 15th.
The BBB will also be the biggest party in the Senate—which is elected by the regional governments—giving it serious sway in the law-making process. The BBB chairman, Erik Stegink, insists that the government’s environmentalist policies must be dropped, especially its plans to buy and close farms, saying that “2030 must be off the table and expropriation is also not an option.”
Hoekstra was echoed by other politicians calling for revision and compromise. Dutch Minister for Agriculture Piet Adema said, “the Netherlands has expressed that farmers must have prospects.” Even Prime Minister Rutte called the vote “a very clear cry,” although he failed to explain what changes he would consider making.
