„Come on guys, don’t be too shy!” BBB leader Caroline van der Plas throws her hands in the air like You Never Walk Alone is cranked up. She dances along the standing tables against which groups of BBB youth lean, one table for each province. The start of BBB Jong will be celebrated on Saturday in a large, not really packed party tent on a farmyard in Doornspijk.
It takes a bit of getting used to. The hundred and fifty young people don’t know each other very well yet. Although the club already has three thousand members, comparable to the youth party of the VVD (JOVD), that is because BBB’ers under 35 are automatically members of the youth branch. This, unlike most youth parties, is not separate from the mother party.
Whether the BBB young people are allowed to be critical? “Yes, you can,” says Van der Plas with a smile. She certainly sees that there are many problems among the youth: “Worries about climate change, nature, your future as a farmer.” She didn’t have to deal with all that when she was young, she says on stage in the party tent.
No critical tweets
It’s allowed, but they don’t go in with a straight leg, the young people of BBB. Critical films or caustic ones tweets á la the JOVD (the youth party of the VVD), which regularly calls for policy changes, that is not necessary for BBB Jong. “That comes across as very distant, we think that is much too easy,” says Jurre Boers (19), chairman of the youth club.
But the young people will of course “get involved in the political debate”, says secretary Jacob IJsselstein (18 years old). He has the meat substitutes under his care at the barbecue. Four burgers and a few skewers. “No, these are vegan,” he says when someone approaches him with an empty plate. He turns them over again. “How do you know when they’re good?”
He set up the youth branch with three other boys. Party chairman Erik Stegeman is proud. “Something is being set in motion here,” he says. They have conducted “hundreds of interviews” to build a core team of youth in each province to unite the BBB youth. Van der Plas did not have to get involved, she says. “Although I don’t know if they would have accepted that.”
A core team of young people with ‘short lines’ to the provincial factions and the party board has been set up for each province. The intention is, says Jurre Boers, that young people can have a say in the party’s policy through the youth branch. He consults with the party board every two weeks, and occasionally sits around the table with the national party.
Lesley Holst (21, history teacher in training) and Stijn van den Berg (21, member of parliament and student of public administration) are committed to the core team in Drenthe. Because contacts with the party are so good, it is not necessary to express public criticism, says Stijn. He expects that with their youth club they mainly have a place to have political discussions together, and perhaps even to scout talent.
They are now figuring out exactly what the provincial teams will do. Sterre Franken (21, pedagogical sciences student) is now preparing excursions to farmers with her club in Gelderland. In Limburg, Agribusiness student Imke Engelen (21) thinks it is important that students ‘become involved in politics’.
On the sidewalk at Van der Wal
The new young people who come to the party are not there to finally give a critical voice, but mainly want to join the conversation. Nevertheless, the first honorary member of BBB Jong is someone who seeks out the discussion: dairy farmer Wim Bonestroo, on whose yard the party takes place.
In June 2022, he was on the doorstep of nitrogen minister Christianne van der Wal, with a group of farmers and tractors. They had a “good conversation” there, Wim still thinks. Van der Wal has experienced it as threatening. BBB leader Van der Plas was also not pleased with the action: “Stop that, you do not visit people at home, no matter how angry you are.”
The fact that Bonestroo has been appointed an honorary member does not mean that BBB Jong supports the campaign, chairman Boers said. He “understands the emotions” about the action, but “Wim really helped us a lot with this party”.
Fewer foreign students
They are not all farmer’s sons and daughters (there are mostly sons at the party). The first themes mentioned by chairman Boers are more citizen than farmer themes: mental well-being, and the ‘elitist disdain with which MBO is viewed’.
Read also: how BBB’ers in the province be prepared
A large ideas board has been made on the toilet trailer next to the tent, for the next elections. “Forbid voting for D66 :)”, “Less foreign students! Education in Dutch” and “realistic harvest goals instead of calendar construction”.
BBB is not a real youth party: only three percent of voters in the recent elections were between 18 and 24, almost seventy percent were over 50. The party tent is therefore growing a bit: from half past six in the evening, the seniors are also invited.
When Van der Plas starts the polonaise, with folk singer John de Bever behind the microphone, it is still mainly the elderly who enthusiastically join in.