The major farmers’ protests and blockades of recent weeks have abated somewhat. But Dutch anti-government activists and international alternative, right-wing media are trying to rekindle the farm fire. This afternoon they gather in Amsterdam for what they say is ‘the biggest demonstration of the 21st century’.
A worldwide demonstration centered on Dam Square in Amsterdam. ‘Stand with the Dutch, because you’re next’, says the announcement that calls on ‘farmers, fishermen, truckers and citizens’ to participate. The aim is to support Dutch farmers in their fight against the government’s nitrogen plans.
The striking thing about the demonstration this afternoon at noon: no farmers’ organization seems to be involved. Who is behind the organization? The action group The Netherlands in Resistance by Michel Reijinga, who became best known in the past two years as an organizer of demonstrations against the corona policy of the Dutch cabinet. “The Netherlands is in need. The flag upside down”, Reijinga writes in a newsletter on the group’s site.
This site already wrote at the beginning of this month how more and more anti-government activists appeared at the farmers’ protests. They are demonstrating not only against the nitrogen policy, but also against ‘the allowance affair, the World Economic Forum and overpopulation’. In recent weeks, a new party has emerged: foreign alternative, right-wing media as Rebel News and The Counter Signal.
fake news
Both are right-wing populist online platforms from Canada and sent Canadian and British collaborators to the Netherlands to report on the ‘Dutch uprising’. The reporter of The Counter Signal, Keean Bexte, calls on Canadian farmers and truckers to show solidarity with Dutch farmers this weekend. “Because what is happening in the Netherlands is a crystal ball for Canada.” A video will also be distributed about the international demonstration ‘for Dutch farmers’.
Bexte, with 200,000 followers on Twitter alone, has also spread various fake news messages from the Netherlands in recent weeks. For example, he retweeted a video in which a tank was driven off a trailer. According to the commentary accompanying the video, farmers would have used that tank to block a distribution center. That turned out not to be true.
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Reports from other, alternative right-wing media showed up earlier this month with live stand-ups at a burned-out warehouse of grocery delivery company Picnic in Almelo. The reporters suspected arson, made a link with the World Economic Forum and saw a possible connection with the farmer’s protests. Steve Bannon, ex-advisor to Donald Trump, also paid attention to the fire on his online platform War Room. Picnic ultimately said it had no indication of arson and suggested the fire may have been caused by a short circuit in one of their electric delivery vehicles.
North American online platforms, which rely mainly on donations, have paid a lot of attention in recent months to the trucker convoys in Canada: truck drivers who blocked highways and city centers in protest against Prime Minister Trudeau’s corona policy. Now those would ‘Freedom Convoys’ have to stand up for the Dutch farmers. Rebel News even set up a special website for reporting on the ‘Dutch peasant revolt’.
Michel Reijinga, the organizer of this afternoon’s demonstration, mentions in his newsletter about support from freedom convoys from Canada, the US, Australia and Italy. According to him, the Parallel Society and Virus Truth (by Willem Engel) also support the demonstration to support the farmers.
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Farmers’ organizations know nothing
However, the farmers’ organizations in the Netherlands know nothing about it themselves. LTO, Agractie and Farmers Defense Force (FDF) are nowhere mentioned by the organizations behind the demonstration. LTO and Agractie left to research platform pointer of KRO-NCRV know that they have not been approached about the action and that they are not participating in it. FDF did not respond.
According to Reijinga, FDF and Agractie are indeed aware. “Farmers will certainly be present, but they will not be guided. As always, FDF and Agractie are not saying anything,” Reijinga told pointer. His Netherlands in Resistance also organized a protest march through Harderwijk, the home of nitrogen minister Christine van der Wal, earlier this month. That demonstration was for the peasants and ‘against the new world order’. About two hundred people came.
Watch our videos about the farmers’ protests below:
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