In the Telegram group ‘Farmers in Revolt’ with more than two thousand members, participants posted texts on Tuesday such as: ‘Let The Hague burn. The cabinet has declared war on everyone. It’s war now’, ‘If you want an armed civil war, you can have it too’, ‘Land can be locked. It is war. Done with it’, ‘They will bleed, those assholes’.
In the group, in which usually a maximum of about three hundred people are online, calls for moderation are also heard. They have hardly any effect. ‘The solution is to overthrow the government’, ‘Ganzekip Duck’ sends. ‘For Rutte there is only 1 solution: hydrochloric acid’, writes ‘Lordbuff’. This cabinet is sickly and has to GO!!! Willingly or unwillingly,” reports “Mr S.”
Salvage company receives hundreds of death threats
That such calls can also lead to action, is apparent when the police seize a tractor on the A28 on Monday evening that is blocking the highway. A recovery company puts the vehicle on a truck. In the Telegram group, you will be asked for the name of the company involved. The next morning the name is shared, including address details and a telephone number. “Leave everyone a nice thank you,” Nikola Tesla sends.
A few hours later, an employee of the company tells by telephone that he has received “hundreds of death threats.” ‘I don’t want to repeat everything. Lots of screaming with illnesses. The phone was red hot.’ The man, who prefers to remain anonymous, no longer uses his own name. The company has recalled all cars, which normally remain with the employees, as a precaution. “We are being scolded for everything. They were told they would come to our place with 150 tractors.’
A motley crew of spontaneous visitors, conspiracy theorists, farmers who want to take action and listeners is active in the Telegram group. Calls are made to set 5G masts on fire, block highways and drive ‘government vehicles upside down’.
New actions are scheduled for Wednesday, writes ‘Regina Vdf’, who shares a message from another group with the call to come to the provincial government in Leeuwarden. That call also comes with a warning. ‘Everything is going to break on Wednesday! We start at the top!! Leeuwarden will be the first stone to break!!!!!’