Mar 17, 2023
AS A WISE COMMUNITY ORGANIZER ADVISES, GET IN THEIR FACES AND PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD: Farmers' protest party win shock Dutch vote victory. The Farmer-citizen movement (BBB) was only set up in 2019 in the wake of widespread farmers' protests. But with most votes counted they are due to win 15 of the Senate's seats with almost 20% of the vote. "This isn't normal, but actually it is! It's all normal citizens who voted," said leader Caroline van der Plas. The BBB aims to fight government plans to slash nitrogen emissions harmful to biodiversity by dramatically reducing livestock numbers and buying out thousands of farms. But its appeal has spread rapidly beyond its rural heartland, on a populist platform that represents traditional, conservative Dutch social and moral values. Shocked by the scale of their success, Ms van der Plas told supporters that voters normally stayed at home if they lost faith in politics: "But today people have shown they can'
