Immediately after the very first election results on Wednesday evening, party leader Caroline van der Plas of the BoerBurgerBeweging said out loud: yes, we are open to a coalition with the PVV of Geert Wilders, the big winner. A day later in the BBB party office in Deventer you also hear some reservations about the formation discussions. Van der Plas does not want to call them hard conditions for the time being. But the PVV’s voting behavior on animal-friendly parliamentary motions, for example, is a sore point for the farmers’ supporters.
That is the influence of PVV member Dion Graus, says Van der Plas. The PVV member who submitted a motion in 2021 to guarantee the rights of animals as incapacitated in the Constitution (it was rejected). “That’s the animal knight, that’s what he calls himself. And that is really based on pure emotion.”
Just last month, the PVV helped a motion by D66 and the Party for the Animals win a majority, she says. A motion to reduce the maximum number of broiler chickens per square meter in stables, because they have “painful ulcers on the soles of the feet” and are given “far too little space” for their natural behavior.
“That seems like a very sympathetic motion,” says Van der Plas. But fewer chicks means less yield, while the investment costs for poultry farmers continue. Moreover, there are European rules for the number of chickens, it must remain a level playing field, she believes. “Then they agree, but purely because Dion Graus feels bad for those chickens, that there are too many of them in the stable. But of course that is not an argument.”
So if PVV wants to govern with BBB? “Then they should stop with these types of motions,” says Van der Plas. Or you have to compensate farmers if you want to give them a future.
Last year, PVV member Graus submitted a widely supported motion for “good earning capacity for farmers and gardeners” around the Agricultural Agreement, which ultimately did not come into effect. He could not be reached for comment.
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Hamburgers on the griddle
With a jump from one to seven Chamber seats, the atmosphere at BBB in Deventer is festive. For the very first meeting with the new faction members, hamburgers are baked on a baking tray.
The party could have been bigger, of course. In April, BBB still fluctuated around thirty seats in Peilingwijzer, a combination of polls. That was just after the Provincial Council elections, when BBB became the largest and thus won sixteen seats in the Senate; a plus in the coming formation.
That historic victory brought together a lot of dissatisfaction, says political scientist Matthijs Rooduijn of the UvA. Anger about Rutte IV’s agricultural and nitrogen policy, a feeling of deprivation in the region, little confidence in politics in general.
Typical characteristics of BBB voters, according to research by Rooduijn. They are predominantly practically educated, of Dutch origin and critical of migration. They have less confidence in science and the media and consider themselves more right-wing than left-wing.
For example, many BBB voters have now switched to the PVV and the new sound of Pieter Omtzigt’s NSC, Rooduijn thinks. “BBB can be seen as a sponge,” he says. “A sponge that absorbed many voters from the center-right and radical right during the Provincial Council elections. And then since April it has been slowly deflated, squeezed out.”
Mildness
Now it is time for BBB to enter into formation talks with the party that took so many seats from them. Van der Plas is “open” about it, she says – unlike the VVD, which would only want to become a tolerating partner of a PVV cabinet.
Wilders must maintain the mildness of the campaign, Van der Plas emphasizes throughout. BBB wants a “noaberstaat” in which people look out for each other, no polarization and division.
Furthermore, BBB wants an outline agreement that will be evaluated once a year by the House of Representatives. Van der Plas: “Not a boarded-up thing, with all kinds of points that you can never ignore. Where as soon as someone says something, a cabinet is about to collapse. That doesn’t help the country at all.”
That coordination agreement must outline “a broad vision for the future of the Netherlands”, according to the BBB election programme. The PVV election manifesto is very brief about BBB’s spearhead – agriculture. Yes, the PVV, just like BBB, is against the nitrogen law, regulation and wants “farmers to be able to continue farming” at a “fair price”. But it is.
The same chapter of the PVV program also states: “Animals should be protected against abuse, thirst, hunger, pain, stress and exhaustion.” And the PVV wants animals to be “irreversibly stunned before they are cut or torn open.”
Differing points of view
Debates and votes show that the PVV “sometimes has divergent views” on agriculture, says BBB board chairman Erik Stegink at the party office in Deventer. “They seem to want some restriction on intensive livestock farming.”
“But that is the same with Pieter Omtzigt, who has announced a reduction of 25 percent or more,” says Stegink. BBB will want to make agreements in a new cabinet about the future of intensive livestock farming.
Especially because BBB would like to have the Ministry of Agriculture, and if possible, also that of spatial planning, says Stegink. Furthermore, BBB wants to relocate a number of ministries, away from The Hague. This is good for closing the gap between city and countryside and for regional employment, according to Stegink. “At least a hundred kilometers outside The Hague. Then you can draw a big circle, whether it is Groningen, Limburg or Zeeland or the east of the country.”
You will not hear principled objections to the PVV in Deventer. “No, because we have said from the start: we do not exclude anyone,” says Mona Keijzer, number two on the BBB list. “And 37, 38 seats? It would show extraordinary arrogance to say, I don’t want anything to do with that.”
“Democracy is always right,” says BBB member Cor Pierik, number six. You cannot ignore such a victory as the PVV has achieved. But: “There may also be something worrying about it. Because you would also like that connection in politics. And wants everyone to participate. And exclusion does not fit in with that.”
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