Dutch farmers protests

The 2019–2020 Dutch farmers protests (Dutch: boerenprotest) is a series of civil disobedience demonstrations by Dutch livestock farmers, characterised by the usage of tractors to block roads, occupy public spaces and intimidate officials.[3][4] The protests were initially triggered by a government proposal to limit nitrogen emissions in the Netherlands by halving the country's livestock,[5][6][7] but protesting farmers have frequently told media that they are motivated by a perceived lack of respect for their profession by the Dutch populace, media and politicians.[8][9]

Dutch farmers protests
A farmer protesting in The Hague, 1 October 2019
Date1 October 2019 – Present
Location
Netherlands
Caused by
Methods
Parties to the civil conflict
  • Agractie
  • Farmers Defense Force
Casualties
InjuriesAt least 1[2]

The protests combined several action groups and an amalgamation of larger goals, which included less government regulation for farmers, more air time for pro-farmer sentiments, and more policy to punish Shell and Tata Steel for their part in the emission crisis.[10] The farmers protests were initially popular and supported by a majority of the Dutch population, but support declined significantly since December 2019.[11][12]

Background

The Netherlands has a strong agrarian and livestock sector, which produces significant agricultural exports and the country is the second largest exporter of agricultural produce in the world after the United States.[13] Since the mid-2000s, climate activism and animal rights activism have become more commonplace in the Dutch House of Representatives and general political discourse of The Netherlands, especially with the emergence of the Party for the Animals as a political force. Policy proposals by parties such as the Dutch green party, GroenLinks, and the center-left D66 have since emphasized the need for farmers to transition into sustainable farming.[14][15][16] These policy proposals were consistently met with opposition by farmers and their representatives.

By 2019, The Netherlands entered a nitrogen emission crisis as the RIVM reported that the severely damaging effects of nitrogen on Dutch soil could only be halted by direct action. The institute found that farmers were responsible for 46% of the countries' nitrogen emission,[17] mostly due to cow dung produced by the livestock industry.[18] This led Tjeerd de Groot, a member of the House of Representatives for D66, to propose new policy to halve the current Dutch livestock on September 9, 2019.[19] The RIVM's findings coupled with De Groot's policy proposal led to resistance by Farmers Defense Force, a farmer activist group. It claimed that the institute had used “shady methods” to ”portray” farmers as big time polluters.[17] They claimed that their unfair portrayal as polluters[20] is caused by the governments want to let the real big time polluters go free.[17] They claimed their fundamental rights were threatened by legislation aiming to lower emissions and demanded that any new legislation would not threaten agricultural undertakings with elimination.[17] They also demanded more research to be undertaken before new legislation be proposed.[17] The government repudiated the accusations of using “shady methods” being used by the RIVM and claimed the numbers were correct.[17]

In addition to the nitrogen emission crisis, Dutch news media have reported that farmers have felt disrespected or threatened in their existence because of increased government regulation on the agricultural and livestock sectors, as well as the popularity of animal rights activism among the Dutch population.[21][22] An incident that occurred on May 13, 2019, in which up to 200 animal rights activists occupied a pig farm in Boxtel, Noord-Brabant, sowed fear among livestock farmers and motivated them to organize into collectives such as the Farmers Defense Force and Agractie, which later became key players in the farmers' protests.[23][24]

Protests

1 October 2019

1 October was one of the days with most intense protests.[17] Thousands of farmers went to The Hague to protest, their tractors causing over a thousand kilometres of traffic jams.[17][25][26] This made it the busiest morning rush (hour) in the history of the Netherlands.[26] When arriving at designated location, the Malieveld, the protesters damaged the area, driving through fences and signs[27][28] and destroying the landscape.[29] Afterwards farmers offered to assist in repairing the damage.[29]

In a speech sheep farmer Bart Kemp said that politicians lack the intelligence of farmers and claimed that the protests were the biggest ever undertaken by farmers in all of history.[20] Minister Carola Schouten promises in a speech that as longs as she is minister of agriculture the amount of legally allowed livestock,[20][30] a measure which parties like Democrats 66 supported in order to shrink nitrogen emissions.[30] When proponents of the nitrogen measures got to tell their side of the story the farmers turned their backs to the stage and drowned out their arguments with curse words.[20] The farmers again used unlawful action, stealing a microphone to prevent the proponents from talking making necessary an intervention security personnel.[20]

11 October 2019

Farmers protest against the new nitrogen emission legislation in the provinces of Frisia and Brabant. As a result, the Frisian province revoked the law.[17][31]

14 October 2019

At 12:00 employers’ organisation LTO noord's protest-action began, having called on its 14.000 members to begin protesting in Gelderland, Overijssel, Drenthe, Groningen, North-Holland, South-Holland, Flevoland and Utrecht.[17] In Groningen the farmers stormed the provincial government building.[32][33][34] This was condemned by LTO Noord.[35]

15 October 2019

Farmers from Limburg protest in front of the provincial government headquarters in Maastricht.[17] In Zeeland farmers begin negotiating instead of holding protests.[17]

16 October 2019

Protests on 16 October, which were organised by the Farmers Defence Force, started at the RIVM building in Bilthoven, later moving to the Binnenhof in The Hague[17] as we last the central train station of that city.[36] It were some of the most intense protest the farmers have undertaken so far.[17]

During these protests a leader of the Farmers Defence Force threatened with civil war,[37] claiming that the government using the military was “a cowardly retreat behind a wall of intimidation and violence”.[37] The soldiers were employed to block off roads in order to prevent escalation of the protests.[38] This was a reaction to the violence the farmers employed in Groningen during previous protests.[38]

17 October 2019

The seventeenth of October began with the farmers preparing a free breakfast for the inhabitants of The Hague before they hit the road again,[17][39][40] using their tractors to dump used paper at government buildings.[17][40]

25 November 2019

Farmers and builders parked next to the exits of major roads throughout the country, threatening to block the exits.[41] One farmer declared “We want to come out better” insinuating this meant “better policy.”[41]

December protests and blockings
When soon enough there will be no more farmers, don't say: "Wir haben es nicht gewußt."

Mark van den Oever, addressing the Noord-Brabant province administration in Den Bosch on December 13, 2019.[42]

The Farmers Defence Force planned to blocking food distribution throughout the country in the week before Christmas.[43] FDF member Mark van den Oever stated that he wanted to refresh Dutch citizen's memory about the Dutch famine of 1944-45 in which thousands of citizens travelled to the countryside to ask local farmers for food due to shortages in the densely populated Western parts of the Netherlands.[44] Next to that, Van den Oever stirred great controversy while comparing the situation of the Dutch farmers to that of the persecution of Jews the Second World War.[45] These statements led to both support as well as anger.[46][47] Out of 4955 farmers who filled in a survey by agricultural organisation LTO, 71% did not support potential blockings.[48] 15% did not want any more protests at all.[48] The potential blockings were quickly denounced as illegal.[49]

13 December 2019

On 13 December, in a surprise protest, Farmers Defence Force blocked the roads to Eindhoven Airport for several hours, leading to severe traffic jams throughout the eastern part of Brabant. That same day, farmers also held protests in both Amsterdam and Den Bosch. Farmer Defence Force called the surprise protest in Eindhoven a teaser for the 18 December protests.[50]

18 December 2019

On 17 December, a court case ruled that the farmers were not allowed to block the food distribution on their planned protest date on 18 December, but were allowed to protest at the locations.[51] The farmers announced protests at 45 different locations, including the Mediapark in Hilversum.[52] However, blockings still occurred after all. In Bergen op Zoom, farmers blocked a chemics company.[53] Several border crossings between the Netherlands and Germany were blocked, sometimes in collaboration with German farmers.[53] The protests led to several fines and several people were arrested by the police for throwing fireworks.[54]

"De boer dat is de keerl" Top 2000 voting campaign

Team Agro, one of the collective farmer groups, announced their intention to vote Normaal's 1982 single "De boer dat is de keerl" to the top of the annual NPO Radio 2 marathon Top 2000. "De boer dat is de keerl" (Achterhooks for "The farmer, that is the man") is an adaption of a Fiddlin' John Carson American country song and tells the story of the hard-working and undervalued farmer who is deprived of his money. On 7 December, it was announced that "De boer dat is de keerl" was the ninth most voted song, and the top voted song in rural areas such as Twente, Weststellingwerf and Normaal's native Achterhoek region.[55][56]

5 February 2020

The Farmers Defense Force announced a new protest, but canceled it in advance.[57] Talks had been planned for the 5th of February, between the minister of agriculture Carola Schouten, prime minister Mark Rutte and the different protest groups. The reason the protest was canceled was allegedly because of new calculations of nitrogen emissions of the RIVM and the FDF wanting to wait for a better moment to organize a protest.

19 February 2020

The first protest in 2020 was on the 19th of February. Just like previous protests, this one was also organized by the Farmers Defense Force. However, the protest did not take place on the Malieveld in The Hague, because the city of The Hague and Staatsbosbeheer kindly asked them not to. The FDF reached out to the farmers and asked them to adhere to the rules. They protested on the Koekamp, a small park next to the Malieveld instead.[58]

The second difference is the usage of highways. The Dutch national police stated that they will enforce standard traffic rules. This resulted in a few farmers being pulled over and fined on different roads throughout the country for driving a tractor on motorways, despite the Farmers Defense Force stressing out farmers shouldn't make use of motor- or highways.[59][60]

Different political parties were invited to speech at the protest. The PVV of Geert Wilders, Forum voor Democratie and CDA were invited. Ultimately only FvD and CDA were allowed by the Farmers defense Force to speech on stage. Geert Wilders was rejected by the leaders of the FDF. FDF-member Jeroen van Maanen said on the stage that Wilders would only come if there were cameras or television crews and FDF would not allow that.[61]

After the protest ended around 3pm, a few farmers made their way to the Ministry for Agriculture. They were stopped by the police before they could reach the ministry building. The farmers carried stickers of the FDF, which they wanted to put on the building.[62]

Later protests

The military has made available 25 trucks and 60 soldiers for the blocking of roads during the demonstrations planned to take place before the government's summer recess.[63]

On 12 July the Farmers went to protest in Maastricht.[64]

On 17 November there was another farmer's protest in The Hague.[65]

Impact

In the aftermath of the most intense farmers protests the builders/construction workers, who were hit even harder by the new nitrogen legislation, as their companies can't run without new building while farms can run without new barns and animals, also took to the streets. Among them were protests on 30 October.[66] Geert Wilders, Leader of the Party for Freedom, has proposed a 6-month contingency plan in which construction of housing, infrastructure and part of the agricultural sector are classed as projects vital for the country and are as such temporarily exempt from the new nitrogen legislation.[67][68] A deal has been struck between the cabinet and the farmers collective.[69]

Public opinion

In October, the farmers protests enjoyed broad popular support by the Dutch population,[70][71] and farmers' demonstrations were facilitated by local officials, such as the mayor of The Hague. This drew some scrutiny especially in the aftermath of mass arrests at an Extinction Rebellion protest in Amsterdam in October.[72] By December, the popular support for the farmers protests had declined. On December 13, 2019, a comment by Farmers Defense Force spokesperson Mark van den Oever comparing the treatment of farmers to the persecution of Jews during World War II was widely condemned.[73] Threats to block food distribution centers led to further decline in popular support.[74]

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