Anja Keuter, chairman of the BBB-States faction in Flevoland, was sentenced to community service on Monday because a cutter from her family business fished without a permit. Keuter’s brother-in-law sailed the boat in 2022, against the rules. Keuter receives a community service order of 55 hours, of which thirty hours are conditional.
On Monday evening she announced that she was leaving the Provincial Council. “I want to prevent the faction, both provincially and nationally, from being burdened with the (negative) attention that this ruling and any follow-up process may entail,” she noted in a statement.
The Overijssel court accuses Keuter of making her cutter available while the permit requirement had not been met. She defended herself by arguing that she was only a director of the company on paper.
The judge acquitted Keuter of the actual offense of fishing without fishing rights. Her brother-in-law was convicted for that offence: the judge imposed a community service order of one hundred hours, of which fifty hours were conditional, and a fine of five hundred euros.
Party informed about criminal case
Keuter had informed her party about the criminal case, but it nevertheless placed her in eleventh place for the European Parliament elections in 2024, it was reported. Follow the Money last month. The BBB won two seats in those elections.
Keuter, who has led the BBB-States faction since 2023, is also in the picture as a candidate councilor for the Urk Municipal Interests party, for which she was a councilor for years, according to local media.
For the party leadership of the BBB, which provides two ministers to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature (LVVN), the criminal case did not prevent them from posing with the offending cutter last month for the campaign for the House of Representatives elections. A week later, State Secretary Jean Rummenie visited the Keuter family’s fishing company.
In response to her departure, BBB Flevoland states that it respects her decision. “We understand that she is taking the responsibility that fits her role as ultimately responsible within her company.”
Keuter was previously involved in a lawsuit after the same cutter collided with a police vessel during a blockade in protest against the nitrogen policy. She demanded compensation, but the judge did not agree.
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