Stuff are at it again, breaking the first rule of journalism: Never mix opinion with reporting. In its report on the stunning victory for the new Dutch rural political party, Farmer Citizen Movement or BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB), Stuff splashes the “right” boogey-phrase — an opinion, not a fact — no less than four times.
A new powerhouse of Dutch right-wing populism has taken political centre stage after winning its first provincial elections, a victory that was seen as a resounding rebuke to Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s ruling four-party coalition.
Leaving aside Stuff’s piss-poor, biased journalism, what happened in the Netherlands provincial elections has sent shock-waves through Dutch and EU politics. BBB is set to win 15-16 seats in the 75-seat Netherlands’ upper house — putting it level with or slightly ahead of Rutte’s ruling coalition.
Losses suffered by members of Rutte’s coalition weaken the government but could also strengthen their resolve to sit out their four-year term in office that ends in 2025 rather than face an early national election.
The election results are also a massive blow to Rutte’s efforts to implement “Net Zero” policies which are set to decimate Dutch farming. BBB emerged from the mass protests by Dutch farmers and truckers, which would have forced the closure of hundreds of farms and slashed livestock herds. Note that Stuff refers to this de-kulakisation as “protect[ing] vulnerable natural habitats”.
Victories in provinces across the nation of nearly 18 million for a party whose leader, Caroline van der Plas, is its only national lawmaker underscore a deep-rooted resentment of mainstream politics in the Netherlands that spreads far beyond the party’s farming power base.
With the count nearing completion, the BBB was forecast to become the biggest party in every province except the central province of Utrecht.
“We are all normal people and all the people who voted for us are normal citizens,” Van der Plas said in a victory speech.
“Normally, if people no longer trust the government, they stay home,” she added. “Today they showed they don’t want to stay at home – they want their voices to be heard.”
“We are all normal people and all the people who voted for us are normal citizens”
Rutte will be forced to either compromise with BBB, or try to strike a deal with parties with even more extreme climate policies than current coalition partners the Greens.
Farmers and truckers, who over the last few years have blockaded highways and even sprayed government buildings and officials with manure have made the parvenu party an overnight success.
At farms across the nation, the Dutch flag hangs upside down as a sign of protest.
Some farmers took to Twitter on Thursday to say they were now hanging the flag the right way up again following BBB’s victory.
The BBB party’s popularity soared amid the protests. It was formed in 2019 and won 1% of the votes in the national election in 2021, with Van der Plas, a former agricultural journalist, becoming a national lawmaker and growing in popularity with her down-to-earth image.
After her election in 2021, she was driven to the Dutch parliament in The Hague in a tractor.
Van der Plas told Dutch broadcaster NOS on Thursday that the vote was about more than the farm pollution issue.
“Nitrate is a symbol for dissatisfaction in the country,” she said, adding that many of her voters “feel unheard, unseen” by politicians in The Hague.
How much of a threat the EU and the global green-left see the rise of such grass-roots rebellion against climate policies can be judged by the swiftness with which the legacy media have deployed the “far-right” bogey-man. Linking BBB to other “far-right” parties in Europe, Stuff claims that:
Van der Plas describes her party as “social right wing”
Stuff
While the identical sentence is found across dozens of legacy media reports on BBB, no source is ever given. The phrase does not appear in BBB’s electoral material. An analysis by the University of Groningen finds that, in fact, “it is difficult to classify the party in the political spectrum”. The analysis notes that its platform includes liberal positions on drug policy, nationalised health and higher taxes on companies. Dutch political journalist Tom-Jan Meeus argues that the BBB’s support base is a reflection of “serious dissatisfaction” with establishment politics and government policies.
No wonder the legacy media are so keen to smear them as “far-right”.
