‘Fed-up’ Dutch help farmers’ party reap rewards

A FARMERS’ protest party angered by green laws triumphed in shock Dutch election results, prompting its leader to ask: “People, what the f--- happened?”

Caroline van der Plas’s Farmerscitizen Movement (BBB) is projected to become the equal largest party in the senate, taking 15 seats.

The Left-wing Groenlinks/pvda is also expected to win 15 seats after elections held following months of turbulent farmer protests against government plans to cut nitrogen emissions. Mark Rutte, the centre-right Dutch prime minister, insisted his coalition government would survive after its four member parties lost eight of their combined 32 seats in the 75-seat senate.

“This is not the result we wanted,” he said after projections showed his People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) party was on course to win 10 seats after almost all the votes in the regional elections were counted.

Mr Rutte’s government plans to meet EU climate targets by reducing livestock and through compulsory farm buyouts to reduce nitrogen emitted by manure and fertilisers.

The BBB’S victory means that the farmers can form alliances in the Dutch senate with other parties and block green legislation in a country that is the world’s second-largest agricultural exporter after the United States.

“It is not just about nitrogen,” Ms van der Plas, a 55-year-old former journalist, said on Wednesday night, adding that people in the Netherlands were “fed up”.