The conversation at Johan Remkes serves many purposes

Rarely was so little known in advance about a conversation where expectations are sky-high. The location where farmers’ organisations, cabinet and “independent discussion leader” Johan Remkes will talk on Friday is secret for security reasons. The guest list also remained unclear until late Wednesday evening: until Wednesday afternoon, more than ten farmer’s organizations pledged, including many sustainable farmers’ organizations and agricultural umbrella organization LTO. The latter consulted on Wednesday evening with more radical groups Agractie and Farmers Defense Force in Nijkerk whether they would all come together and with what agenda. In a statement afterwards they jointly announced that only LTO goes and speaks and listens “on behalf of all parties”. At the same time, the statement said that these farmers’ organizations “do not trust the government-directed consultations.”

Finally, it is unclear what the content of the conversation may be about: the only thing that Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Remkes wanted to say about it is that there are “no taboos”. Host Remkes added to his invitation last week that “there is room and joint solutions are possible”. But does that also mean that the cabinet sees opportunities to meet farmers with regard to the hitherto unassailable nitrogen targets or the chosen time frame for 2030?

It is clear that the conversation serves several purposes. The cabinet, whose top-heavy delegation consists of Rutte and the ministers Christianne van der Wal (Nitrogen, VVD), Henk Staghouwer (Agriculture, ChristenUnie) and Mark Harbers (Infrastructure and Water Management, VVD), especially hopes that on Friday with the most important farmers’ organizations can be spoken. After weeks of actions, which increased in intimidation and violence, re-engagement in itself is important, says a government source. “It doesn’t help if you keep talking about each other instead of to each other, and there are so many big words.”

Remkes wrote in his letter of invitation that he also wants to talk about the government’s communication to date and “how confidence in the future and in each other can be restored”.

The fact that Farmers Defense Force (FDF) has also been invited by Remkes is politically sensitive. Foreman Mark van den Oever compared the fate of the farmers with that of the Jews in World War II and has not distanced himself from violent actions and intimidating politicians at home. D66 MP Tjeerd de Groot believes that FDF “should not be given a seat at the table as long as it does not distance itself from the illegal actions”.

Remkes’ spokesperson says that he finds it important “to enter into dialogue with the broad field of the agricultural sector”.

‘Empty shell’

Where the cabinet and Remkes want an ‘exploratory’ meeting to investigate the possibility of follow-up talks, the farmers’ organizations want to do business immediately. LTO already announced last week that it wanted to discuss “the goal, timeline and substantive approach” of the nitrogen policy. Agractie wrote to the cabinet this week with a number of firm demands: there should be no forced expropriations and the so-called critical deposition value, which indicates the limit of unacceptable nitrogen damage in nature reserves, should not be applied ‘too rigidly’ everywhere.

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SGP Member of Parliament Roelof Bisschop understands that the farmers’ organizations want to negotiate about this. „If ‘no taboos’ only means that they can bring up everything in the conversation, it is an empty shell. But if it means that there are no longer taboos about the design, requirements, pace and preconditions of the policy, then it can be a meaningful conversation.”

Coalition party D66 sees it differently. De Groot: “Prime Minister Rutte is clear that the goals and the pace are not up for discussion.” In particular, he expects Remkes, who previously as chairman of an advisory committee, gave a clear impetus for the strict nitrogen policy, to explain that story “again well and calmly” to the farmers.

It is a handicap, says the D66 MP, that Remkes only knows the difficult side of nitrogen policy: the necessary reduction to get nature healthy again. The long-awaited ‘perspective letter’ from Minister Staghouwer about the sustainable future of livestock farming has not yet arrived.

The cabinet cannot easily meet the demands of the farmers’ organisations; the proposals are too far apart for that. The nitrogen plan that LTO drew up last year with employer organizations and nature organizations is based on a 40 percent reduction in 2030 instead of 50 percent, which is considerably less. Minister Van der Wal called goals and the timeline at broadcaster WNL “clear and ready”. “I have a clear assignment: half less nitrogen by 2030.” Tinkering with the timetable is especially sensitive at D66.

Reducing the share that agriculture has to contribute to the reduction is also difficult, because this sector emits a relatively large amount of nitrogen. Promising that no farmer will be expropriated forcibly also seems politically unfeasible, because then the question is whether the goals can be achieved.

customization

In other respects, the government and farmers are closer together. Van der Wal wrote to the House of Representatives in June that customization can be applied ‘in areas where it is not yet possible or not possible to bring the nitrogen concentration that precipitates below the critical deposition value’. Another demand of Agractie is that the approximately six thousand farms that no longer operate legally due to the judicial nitrogen ruling are legalized. Van der Wal is already working on this and has promised that these companies will not be fined.

CDA MP Derk Boswijk says on these points that he has faith in rapprochement between angry farmers and ‘The Hague’. “I think they are quite close together. The government has finally taken cautious steps.”

A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of August 4, 2022