Unprecedented expression of dissatisfaction with the VVD: party votes against its own nitrogen policy

Minister for Nature and Nitrogen Christianne van der Wal had been listening intently for over an hour, in the front row of the VVD congress in Halfweg – Saturday afternoon. When VVD members said at the microphone that “the food supply” was endangered by this cabinet’s nitrogen policy or that the calculation method for nitrogen precipitation was not good, she shook her head vigorously. When someone else – Pepijn Kruiswijk of the VVD youth organization JOVD – said that he thought “a roof over his head” was much more important than “a piece of bacon on his plate”, she nodded just as vigorously. Next to her, VVD party leader Sophie Hermans, Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Education Minister Dennis Wiersma sometimes nodded along with her. Congress revolved around her.

And the entire front row of VVD members looked stunned and almost defeated for seconds when it turned out that a narrow majority of congressmen, 51 percent, had voted against the ‘area-oriented’ nitrogen plans that Van der Wal had presented on Friday. As a result, said Van der Wal himself, the livestock will shrink by about 30 percent. The motion that just made it to the congress and which is intended for the parliamentary party of the VVD, states that the nitrogen policy must be adjusted and that other calculation methods and “facts” must be used than at present.

Also read: Nitrogen reduction means a radical redesign of farmland

For the VVD, where there have been hardly any really fierce discussions for a long time, it is an unprecedented expression of dissatisfaction. Member of Parliament Thom van Campen, who spoke for the VVD about nitrogen in The Hague, and temporary party chairman Onno Hoes tried everything to limit the damage. Could the motion not be held, they could still talk? Or could something be changed in the explanation of the motion, which now stated that agricultural companies were “sacrificed to an outdated theoretical method”?

Tears in their eyes

The two VVD members who had defended the motion at the microphone – alderman in Assen Mirjam Pauwels and member of the provincial council in South Holland Mirjam Nelisse – fell into each other’s arms after the result, with tears in their eyes. In the hall, on the site of the old CSM sugar factory, they had been helped by municipal councilors and members of parliament who had said that the VVD would ‘lose’ ‘dramatically’ in next year’s provincial elections if the plans went ahead, and that the VVD “finally has to be in charge of D66”.

It was hard for VVD members who oppose the nitrogen plans that the congress had adopted a motion earlier that afternoon that called on the House of Representatives faction to return to a maximum speed of 130 kilometers per hour as soon as possible, even during the day. As if the VVD wanted to say: let the farmers solve the nitrogen problem on their own. “I’m sitting here with shame,” said deputy Henk Brink from Drenthe. “I’ve been on the phone with all crying people since Friday afternoon, and we’re coming up with this 130-kilometer story.”

Barefoot

Only after almost an hour had someone at the microphones started talking about the intimidating behavior of the farmers who had driven to Christianne van der Wal’s house on Friday evening. Van der Wal had gone out barefoot to talk to them, and to stop them in the driveway of her house. The audience supported her with a round of applause. In the corridors you could hear that the farmers had in any case not helped themselves with it, and Van der Wal perhaps did – many VVD members thought she had looked tough among the angry group.

After the result of the motion, Sophie Hermans gave her first congressional speech as party leader. A personal story, with a lot of attention for her late mother Edith. From whom, she said, she had learned to persevere. She promised the VVD members that with her as party leader they could “continue to count on a realistic, right-wing party”.

Also read: Nitrogen crisis, housing shortage, lack of asylum reception; Rutte IV must first clean up his own legacies

Behind the stage, Christianne van der Wal told journalists that she was not disappointed, no. The result was 51 to 49, which she called “in balance”. It had been a “very nice discussion.” “And now it is up to the House of Representatives to try to get a majority for it.” Would anything really change? “The goal of nitrogen reduction,” said Van der Wal, “must be achieved after all.”

In the corridor of the old factory, JOVD member Pepijn Kruiswijk said that he was very sorry. “Now I have to explain to my friends that the VVD wants to make housing impossible. Such a shame.”