The Farmers’ Defense Force (FDF) will not establish a political party. Instead, chairwoman Sita van Kempema will run in the parliamentary elections on behalf of Bilang van Niederland (BVNL), the party of Webern van Haga.
That was the result of a general meeting of the members of the Peasant Labor Club in Nigercq on Monday evening, where one of the options on the table was to create a party of its own. After the meeting, it turned out that this would not happen.
Van Kempema is number three on the BVNL list. It was previously announced that former 50PLUS leader Henk Krol will be Van Haga’s deputy. Van Kempema will make the voice of the true peasant heard in the House of Representatives, the BVNL said in a statement, with a strong rejection of Brussels. “Her determination and fighting spirit are exactly what we need to protect our hard working farmers and fishermen,” says Van Haga.
Prior to the members’ general meeting, FDD leader Mark van der Over had already indicated that he would not become the potential party leader of the FDD. He didn’t see how to combine that with his cultivation work. Van der Oever fears that the number of seats that BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB) might win in the next parliamentary elections in November will not be enough to change politics in the Netherlands. He hopes Van Keimpema will succeed with the BVNL in luring voters away from the VVD, among others. “We decided we didn’t want to be a splinter party and we didn’t want to be a competitor to the BBB,” he says.
‘carte blanche’
Van den Oever also explains that the FDF wants to continue to focus primarily on the agricultural sector and not necessarily on other sectors such as healthcare. According to him, this will be necessary if the FDF becomes its own party. Van Kempema thinks the same way. According to her, preparing a list of candidates for the FDF was also a challenge in terms of time. “A new party must submit its lists at the end of August, and this is a difficult story.”
Van Keimpema also notes that the FDF has already drawn up “the entire agricultural programme” for the BVNL. “So we really do have carte blanche.” It also says that the Farmers’ Action Group will not change and that action towards the elections is also possible.
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deflation
The Foundation for Defense of Democracy did not want to make a decision about establishing a political party except after consulting the members. “There’s been an exodus in The Hague and that’s a good thing,” foreman Marc van den Auver of Sint-Hubert said in a video blog last week. The question now is: how are we going to monetize this? Opportunities are now there, anyone can start the game.”
The Farmers’ Action Club wants more influence in The Hague and believes that the Cabinet is offering farmers no perspective on resolving the nitrogen crisis. The working group has also often indicated that forced purchase from farms is unacceptable. Agricultural organizations believe that farmers in the Netherlands should contribute disproportionately to reducing nitrogen emissions. FDF previously came up with its own plan on how best to reduce nitrogen emissions according to farmers.
Farmers have taken to the streets several times in recent years to protest the government’s nitrogen policy. The recent protest of the FDD in The Hague to bring down the government, did not fulfill the high hopes of thousands of farmers. Two weeks later, the government fell after all, due to the raging political struggle over the reception of refugees.
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