LTO Noord chairman Dirk Bruins fears that the support for farmers will decrease due to highway blockades. Bruins calls the action in which farmers at the minister’s house created a threatening situation ‘extremely stupid’. “That has to stop soon.”
“What has happened in a number of places is really not possible. It doesn’t help us as farmers either, it is extremely stupid that that happens,” says the foreman of the northern department of the Land – en Tuinbouworganisatie (LTO). He is responding to violence at last night’s nitrogen protests in other parts of the country.
“It does indicate that there is a lot of frustration and despair in the sector. That does not make sense, what those people do is very unwise. They should not do that,” says Bruins. According to him, that call is shared by farmers among themselves. “I see going around in app groups: ‘We understand frustration and anger, but don’t do this.'”
Opponents of the nitrogen policy broke through a police deposition at the home of nitrogen minister Van der Wal last night. They pushed a police car aside so tractors could drive into the street. The minister was not at home, but her family was. It is the second day in a row that farmers protested against the nitrogen policy at the minister’s house. Officers could not intervene immediately, because they first had to ensure their own safety.
According to the police, the action “clearly crossed borders. A police car was destroyed and a slurry tank was emptied. The situation was threatening and unacceptable, also towards emergency personnel”, the police said on Twitter.
A police car was also attacked in Stroe in Gelderland, on the A1 a steam shot weapon had already been used by police officers when the tires of police vehicles were punctured.
“I see that until yesterday the goodwill was very good, everyone understood why farmers are angry,” says the dairy farmer from Dwingeloo. “At the football association in the village or at the TT you hear from the people around you that they understand the farmers. But I do think that understanding disappears if you stand still with the children on the highway for three or four hours.”
He does, however, want farmers to continue to propagate that they consider the chosen nitrogen rate to be worthless and that the policy must be shelved. “We as LTO have precisely aimed our arrows at provincial governments and the municipality. You can see that they are turning against the policy. As far as we are concerned, that helps to stand still on the highway for more than four hours. If the parties that have to implement it say: ” We’re just not going to do it,” there is a problem in The Hague. Resistance has to come from below.”