POPULIST WAVE: EVERY DUTCH FARMER IS AN ELECTED OFFICIAL NOW

[Wunder-Zeichen]

Populist Wave

Is every Dutch farmer an elected official now? Dutch parties keep changing, but the politics remain the same. The massive electoral victory of the Netherlands' Farmer-Citizen Movement reflects another convulsion on the Dutch right, Stan Veuger writes.

The party’s signature policy issue is opposition to planned curbs on nitrogen emissions. This may sound like a niche issue, but last summer was marked by widespread farmer protests against the restrictions that could count on the sympathy of significant numbers of voters, especially outside the Randstad. The urban-rural cleavage is easily visible in Wednesday’s election results. For example, the BBB finished in eighth position in the city of Utrecht, in the urban core, with 5.2 percent of the vote, while still winning the province. In contrast, the largely rural province of Overijssel gave it 31.3 percent of the vote, almost four times the vote share of its closest competitor. To be clear, there are significant numbers of voters who care passionately about environmental policy on the other side of the issue as well. While the GreenLeft and the Party for the Animals may have secured only 11.1 percent of the vote in Overijssel, they were the options selected by 31 percent of voters in Utrecht. While most of the attention will go to the newcomers’ dramatic victory, the results have important implications for long-standing Prime Minister Mark Rutte, in office since 2010, and his centrist government as well. His coalition consists of the prime minister’s center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), the once-almighty Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), the social liberals of Democrats 66 (D66), and the do-gooder Protestants of the increasingly diverse Christian Union.

https://archive.is/GGA4g#selection-1127.0-1135.494

The Netherlands' Eternal Prime Minister Survives Another Populist Wave



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[Sebastianus Rex]

Great for the people, let's hope the movement is not sabotaged by professional parasites (professional politicians)...which will most certainly happen... so smart up farmers.

[axel.aleman]

Great for the people, let's hope the movement is not sabotaged by professional parasites (professional politicians)...which will most certainly happen... so smart up farmers.

Based

[Tooting Carmen]

https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/0...ite-eco-mania/

[Your Old Comrade]

Right now, the country is an unholy mess as the polls indicate a tie between the VVD and BBB (farmers) and the government has just collapsed over all sorts of refugee nonsense (ChristianUnion (funny jokers those!) and D66 wanted more open borders, while the VVD told them to stuff that idea right back up their backside). Everything is in limbo, probably won't have elections until autumn because of summer recess. But I can't think of a better thing than having a temporal caretaker cabinet, because the ladies and gents screw up everything they touch, period.

Let's not even go into the inflation etc. Lovely, just lovely.