Farmer–Citizen Movement Explained

Farmer–Citizen Movement
Native Name:BoerBurgerBeweging
Country:the Netherlands
Abbreviation:BBB
Leader:Caroline van der Plas
Chairperson:Erik Stegink
Leader1 Title:Leader in the House of Representatives
Leader1 Name:Caroline van der Plas
Leader2 Title:Leader in the Senate
Leader2 Name:Ilona Lagas
Founder:Caroline van der Plas
Headquarters:Smeenkhof 12-d,
Colmschate, Deventer[1]
Europarl:European People's Party
Youth Wing:BBB Jong
Membership: 13,426[2]
Membership Year:2024
Position:Centre-right to right-wing
Slogan:Dutch; Flemish: De stem van en voor het platteland ("The voice of and for the countryside")
Colours: Grass green
Seats1 Title:Senate
Seats2 Title:House of Representatives
Seats3 Title:States-Provincial
Seats4 Title:Water board[3]
Seats5 Title:European Parliament
Seats6 Title:Benelux Parliament

The Farmer–Citizen Movement (Dutch; Flemish: BoerBurgerBeweging in Dutch; Flemish pronounced as /buːrˈbʏr.ɣərbəˈʋeː.ɣɪŋ/, BBB) is an agrarian[4] and right-wing populist[5] political party in the Netherlands.[6] It is headquartered in Deventer, Overijssel. The current party leader is founder Caroline van der Plas, who has led it since its creation in 2019.[7]

History

The Farmer–Citizen Movement was founded on 1 November 2019 by agricultural journalist Caroline van der Plas, together with Wim Groot Koerkamp and Henk Vermeer from agricultural marketing firm ReMarkAble, in response to the widespread farmers' protests that had taken place earlier that month.[8] [9] On 17 October 2020, Van der Plas was unanimously chosen as the party's lead candidate.[10] It won one seat at the 2021 general election.[8]

The BBB won the 2023 provincial elections, winning the popular vote and receiving the most seats in all twelve provinces.[11] [12] [13] [14] Given that the provincial councils elect the Dutch Senate, the party was predicted to win 17 seats in the 2023 Senate election, the most of any party;[13] it won 16 seats in the election.

On 1 September 2023, former JA21 MPs Nicki Pouw-Verweij and Derk Jan Eppink and former PVV MP Lilian Helder joined the BBB parliamentary group in the run-up to 2023 parliamentary elections, increasing the BBB's number of seats from one to four.[15] BBB also presented Mona Keijzer as candidate for Prime Minister.[16] The party won seven seats with nearly half a million votes.

Ideology and platform

The BBB is a primarily agrarian[4] and right-wing populist[5] [17] [18] political party, that is generally placed on the centre-right,[19] [20] [21] to right-wing[22] [23] [24] [25] [26] of the political spectrum. The party has been variously described as conservative,[27] centrist,[4] Christian-democratic,[28] and partially centre-left.[4] While not a far-right party itself, some academics and journalists have argued that it is supported by far-right elements.[29] [30] The BBB shifted further to the right after PVV and JA21 members joined the BBB faction in September 2023.[31] [32]

In European politics, the party is regarded as Eurosceptic.[5] [33] The BBB supports Dutch membership of the European Union (EU) for trading purposes, but wants to reduce the power of the EU "to a level of how the EEC was once intended" and opposes federalisation of the EU. The party argues that each country and region within the EU should be allowed to maintain its identity and culture without interference.[34] [33] It stated its intention to join the European People's Party[35] but unlike other EPP parties, BBB did not join the Christian Group in the Benelux Parliament[36] nor does BBB sit in the EPP group in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.[37]

On foreign policy, the party also supports Dutch membership of NATO and has called for providing Ukraine with F-16s.[38]

On immigration and asylum, the party supports accommodating refugees fleeing wars but prefers they be helped close to the region of where they are from rather than encouraging migration to the Netherlands and intends for most refugees to return home once the conflict is over. It also calls for immigrants to already be employed and financially self-supporting before moving to the Netherlands, and they must learn Dutch, work and pay tax in the Netherlands for at least five years before becoming eligible for permanent residency. The party supports deporting illegal immigrants.[33]

The party considers itself to support both food politics[39] and rural development.[40] It opposes the Rutte government's proposals to mitigate the human impact on the nitrogen cycle following the Nitrogen crisis in the Netherlands.[41]

Party leader Caroline van der Plas has stated that the Party for the Animals and animal rights organization Wakker Dier are two organisations with whom she disagrees with 99% of their viewpoints. She saw the effect of their campaigns and wanted to provide an alternative perspective on social media.[42]

In the 2021 general election, the party focused its campaign on issues important to rural and agrarian voters, including pledges for a "Ministry of the Countryside" located at least 100 kilometers from The Hague, and a removal of the ban on neonicotinoids.[43] The party called for a Right to Agriculture Act, which would allow for farmers to have more say on agricultural expansion matters, in response to local opposition to pig and goat farms over public health, environmental and agricultural concerns.

Election results

House of Representatives

ElectionLead candidateVotes%Seats+/–Government
2021Caroline van der Plas104,3191.00New
2023485,5514.65 6

European Parliament

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Register . www.kiesraad.nl . 22 April 2016 . 8 April 2023 . 14 March 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230314231421/https://www.kiesraad.nl/verkiezingen/tweede-kamer/partijnamen-en-logos/register . live.
  2. Web site: Ledentallen Nederlandse politieke partijen per 1 januari 2024 . 28 February 2024 . 28 February 2024 . nl . . Documentation Centre Dutch Political Parties . Membership of Dutch political parties as of 1 January 2024 .
  3. Each water board holds two seats for agricultural and nature reserve stakeholders respectively, which are not elected
  4. Web site: Een beetje links, een beetje rechts én agrarisch populisme: Dit is waar de BoerBurgerBeweging voor staat . 23 March 2023 . 2 April 2023 . 27 March 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230327115010/https://eenvandaag.avrotros.nl/item/een-beetje-links-een-beetje-rechts-en-agrarisch-populisme-dit-is-waar-de-boerburgerbeweging-voor-staat/ . live.
  5. News: 16 March 2023 . Farmers' protest party win shock Dutch vote victory . en-GB . . 29 March 2023 . 16 March 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230316083553/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64967513 . live.
  6. Web site: Nordsieck . Wolfram . 2021 . Netherlands . Parties and Elections in Europe . 24 March 2021 . 2 April 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170402084120/http://parties-and-elections.eu/netherlands.html . live.
  7. Web site: Bestuur BoerBurgerBeweging . BoerBurgerBeweging . 3 December 2019 . 1 November 2020 . nl . 25 September 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210925062105/https://boerburgerbeweging.nl/boerburgerbeweging/bestuur/ . live.
  8. Web site: BBB partijgeschiedenis . Documentatiecentrum Nederlandse Politieke Partijen . 1 November 2020 . nl . 19 March 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210319183802/https://dnpp.nl/pp/bbb/geschied . live.
  9. Web site: REMARKABLE MAAKT OPMERKELIJKE BOERBURGERBEWEGING . ReMarkAble . 19 August 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220616074521/https://remarkable.nl/opmerkelijk-nieuws/remarkable-maakt-opmerkelijke-boerburgerbeweging. 16 June 2022.
  10. Web site: Kandidaat-Kamerleden BBB . BoerBurgerBeweging . 13 May 2020 . 1 November 2020 . nl . 21 October 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201021013402/https://boerburgerbeweging.nl/kandidaten/ . live.
  11. Web site: Mike . Corder . Populist Farmer Citizen Movement wins big in Dutch election . . 16 March 2023 . 20 March 2023 . 20 March 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230320190735/https://apnews.com/article/netherlands-election-farmers-bbb-mark-rutte-cc59032d926a1585002ce9e10aee0886 . live.
  12. Web site: Camut . Nicolas . Dutch pro-farmers party wins big in provincial elections . . 16 March 2023 . 20 March 2023 . 20 March 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230320190735/https://www.politico.eu/article/dutch-farmers-party-bbb-mark-rutte-netherlands-big-winner-in-provincial-elections/ . live.
  13. Web site: Holligan . Anna . Kirby . Paul . Farmers' protest party win shock Dutch vote victory . BBC News . March 16, 2023 . 20 March 2023 . 16 March 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230316083553/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64967513 . live.
  14. Web site: Meijer . Bart H. . Dutch farmers' protest party scores big election win, shaking up Senate . . 16 March 2023 . 20 March 2023 . 20 March 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230320190723/https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/farmers-protest-party-set-shake-up-dutch-political-landscape-2023-03-15/ . live.
  15. Web site: Omroep Venlo - Lilian Helder direct van PVV naar BBB . 2023-11-22 . omroepvenlo.nl . nl.
  16. Web site: 2023-09-01 . BBB schuift Mona Keijzer naar voren als premierskandidaat . 2023-11-23 . nos.nl . nl.
  17. News: Adler . Katya . Katya Adler . Far-right parties on the rise across Europe . BBC News . 30 June 2023 . 30 June 2023.
  18. Web site: Column (Maarten van Nieuw Amerongen): Het populisme van van der Plas en Boswijk . 23 February 2022. 17 March 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230317200523/https://www.rd.nl/artikel/940912-column-maarten-van-nieuw-amerongen-het-populisme-van-van-der-plas-en-boswijk . live.
  19. Web site: Dutch farmers turn protests into vote victory . 15 March 2023 .
  20. Web site: Farmers on frontline as Dutch divided by war on nitrogen pollution | Netherlands | the Guardian .
  21. Web site: Politiek met Sjoerd – Wie is de BBB-stemmer? . Ipsos . 4 April 2023 . nl.
  22. Book: Ben Crum. Party System Hospitality, Internal Strife, and Radicalization. Ben Crum. Alvaro Oleart. Populist Parties and Democratic Resilience: A Cross-National Analysis of Populist Parties' Impact on Democratic Pluralism in Europe. Taylor & Francis. 2023. 9781000834628. https://books.google.com/books?id=LEuhEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA124. 124.
  23. Web site: Exit poll shows Dutch coalition will lose 8 seats in Senate as BBB becomes biggest party | NL Times . nltimes.nl . 16 March 2023 . 2 April 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230402212403/https://nltimes.nl/2023/03/15/exit-poll-shows-dutch-coalition-will-lose-8-seats-senate-bbb-becomes-biggest-party . live.
  24. Web site: Populist Farmer Citizen Movement wins big in Dutch election . Associated Press . 16 March 2023 . 20 March 2023 . 20 March 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230320190735/https://apnews.com/article/netherlands-election-farmers-bbb-mark-rutte-cc59032d926a1585002ce9e10aee0886 . live.
  25. Web site: Archived copy . 21 March 2023 . 21 March 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230321011903/https://www.rtvnoord.nl/amp/nieuws/1006142/analyse-bbb-moet-rechtsaf-slaan-voor-nieuwe-coalitie . live.
  26. News: Waar staat BBB op het politieke spectrum? Drie politicologen aan het woord . . 19 March 2023 . 24 March 2023 . 24 March 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230324033900/https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2023/03/19/politicologen-bbb-wakkert-de-competitie-op-rechts-aan-a4159931 . live . Valk . Guus.
  27. Web site: BoerBurgerBeweging . 9 August 2022 . . May 2021 . 7 August 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220807080832/https://www.uni-muenster.de/NiederlandeNet/nl-wissen/politik/bbb.html . live.
  28. News: Valk . Guus . 25 August 2023 . Het CDA-denken is springlevend, in de partijen van Omtzigt en Van der Plas. nl . NRC . 26 August 2023.
  29. Web site: Trump and Le Pen backed these Dutch farmers – now they've sprung an election shock . . 19 March 2023 . 19 March 2023 . "The Farmer-Citizen Movement has also won support from the far-right." "It remains to be seen whether the Farmer-Citizen Movement will present itself as a far-right party.".
  30. Web site: Rural populist party emerges as big winner in Dutch elections . . 16 March 2023 . 16 March 2023 . "The BBB, which has won the support of far-right and populist parties internationally, claims the problem has been exaggerated and that farmers' livelihoods are being sacrificed to the green transition.".
  31. Web site: Maakt BBB een ruk naar rechts met premierskandidaat Mona Keijzer? 'We zijn behoudend op culturele zaken' . 1 September 2023.
  32. Web site: Hoe lang zal Caroline van der Plas blij zijn met haar nieuwe collega's? . 6 September 2023.
  33. Web site: Healthy farmers With each other, for each other! . live . 22 April 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230316102932/https://boerburgerbeweging.nl/standpunten/gezonde-boeren/ . 16 March 2023.
  34. Web site: VERKIEZINGSPROGRAMMA . BBB . 19 May 2023.
  35. Web site: Sander Smit lijsttrekker BBB bij Europese verkiezingen . 15 December 2023. 7 February 2024.
  36. Web site: Politieke fracties . beneluxparl.eu . Benelux Parliament . nl . 6 February 2024. 25 January 2024.
  37. Web site: Mr Gerrit-Jan OPLAAT (Netherlands, NR). 7 February 2024. Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
  38. Web site: Een jaar oorlog in Oekraïne; vrijheid en veiligheid waarderen betekent voedsel waarderen BBB . live . 5 March 2023 . 18 March 2023 . boerburgerbeweging.nl . https://web.archive.org/web/20230318131511/https://boerburgerbeweging.nl/fractienieuws/een-jaar-oorlog-in-oekraine-vrijheid-en-veiligheid-waarderen-betekent-voedsel-waarderen/ . 18 March 2023 . nl.
  39. Web site: Kieskamp . Wilma . Nieuwe partij voor boeren mikt op twee Kamerzetels . Trouw . 3 November 2020 . nl . 14 August 2019 . 25 September 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210925212416/https://www.trouw.nl/nieuws/nieuwe-partij-voor-boeren-mikt-op-twee-kamerzetels~ba232e88/ . live.
  40. Web site: BBB Kandidaten Flyer Caroline van der Plas . BoerBurgerBeweging . 3 November 2020 . nl . October 2020 . 19 January 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210119115836/https://boerburgerbeweging.nl/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/BBB_Kandidaten_Flyer_Caroline-van-der-Plas.pdf . dead.
  41. News: Waarom protesteren boeren in Den Haag? . NRC . 28 January 2020 . 1 October 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191001153820/https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2019/09/30/het-boerenbedrijf-komt-in-verzet-a3975142 . live.
  42. News: Willems . Ingrid . Caroline van der Plas (52) uit Deventer verloor haar man, als frontvrouw van de boeren jeuken haar handen . 24 March 2021 . . 27 December 2019 . 2 August 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210802092725/https://www.destentor.nl/deventer/caroline-van-der-plas-52-uit-deventer-verloor-haar-man-als-frontvrouw-van-de-boeren-jeuken-haar-handen~a9145447/ . live.
  43. Web site: Buning . Stefan . Caroline van der Plas gekozen als lijsttrekker BoerBurgerBeweging . Agraaf . 24 March 2021 . 9 April 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210409235323/https://www.agraaf.nl/artikel/370117-caroline-van-der-plas-gekozen-als-lijsttrekker-boerburgerbeweging/ . live.

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