LTO Noord foreman Dirk Bruins will not shed a tear at the fall of the cabinet. But the blow of Rutte IV does, according to him, cause a lot of question marks among the farmers.
“Many people were completely done with this cabinet, I also saw that with many farmers. But it is a mixed feeling, because now everything has to be redone, while a lot is coming at us,” says Bruins. “If you have a caretaker cabinet, there is also a standstill. And that is never good.”
“For example, the provinces had to submit their area programs before July 1 and something has to be done with that. And here in Drenthe we have court rulings about lily cultivation,” Bruins refers to the ban on spraying plant protection products on plots near Boterveen. “If things don’t go well there, the central government must also look into it. But now no major decisions are taken by the government anymore. I find that worrying.”
The fall of the government also has consequences for the nitrogen dossier, Bruins realizes. “It has now become unclear if farmers want to take measures to reduce nitrogen. Because what will happen to such a process, will it perhaps come to a complete standstill? That creates a lot of uncertainty for companies and we cannot use that. I would very much like new elections as soon as possible.”
Those elections will probably not be until mid-November, according to information from the Electoral Council. The legal term is 90 days after the fall of a cabinet, but the summer holidays and autumn holidays must be added to that. Municipalities must also be able to properly prepare for the preparation of the polling stations.
Ultimately, it comes as no surprise to Bruins that the cabinet does not complete the full ride. “I myself was in the negotiations with the cabinet to reach an agricultural agreement. Then I noticed that I was facing a team that did not radiate unanimity. There were the necessary tensions between the parties and that also ensured that no agreement was reached reaches.”
“The failure to reach an agreement was not our fault; the cabinet lacked the political will. It was a fragile alliance and it was actually waiting for a moment when things would go wrong,” said Bruins. So that moment came last night.