The government’s goal to halve nitrogen emissions everywhere in the Netherlands by 2030 is “not sacred” to coalition party CDA. “The process needs to be restarted. And there are no dogmas, 2030 is not sacred to us,” party leader Wopke Hoekstra said in an interview with the AD on Friday.
With this, the CDA seems to be breaking with the agreement that has been laid down in the coalition agreement that the Christian Democrats concluded with VVD, D66 and ChristenUnie. Hoekstra points in the newspaper, however, to the difficult process that is going on with regard to the nitrogen targets. “We have been working for a few months now and what is the result? Impasse. I am grateful that Johan Remkes is trying to smooth things out, but that is not enough. We have to restart the process, farmers have to become ally again. one thing is not up for discussion: nature must be restored. That requires a 50 percent reduction.”
The CDA member, however, argues for more time to achieve this reduction, although he emphasizes that his party does not want to pass on the problems to the next generations. “But farmers must also be able to earn a fair living. Of course you can already achieve the nitrogen targets in many places before 2030, but if it takes longer elsewhere, we have to take that time. Now we are nowhere, many parties are not even sitting around the table , and without the performers you have nothing at all.”
Hoekstra tells the AD that he will not succumb to the pressure of the farmers who have been campaigning harshly against the cabinet’s nitrogen plans in recent weeks. “On the contrary: in this way we take a positive step forward. It is essential for us to combine two things: nature restoration and a vital countryside with a fair living for our farmers.”