Europe’s right wing piggybacks on Dutch farmer
protests
Demonstration over nitrogen emissions draws in Polish
government, Marine Le Pen and Donald Trump.
BY CAMILLE
GIJS AND BARTOSZ BRZEZINSKI
July 29,
2022 3:14 pm
https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-right-wing-piggybacks-netherlands-farmer-protests/
You see angry farmers. The far right sees opportunity.
Europe's
right-wing populists have been quick to jump on what has until now been a
mostly domestic issue in the Netherlands over limits on nitrogen and ammonia
emissions. With farmers fearful of a loss of livelihood if steep cuts on
emissions are implemented in the agricultural sector, right-wing leaders like
Geert Wilders, Marine Le Pen and even Donald Trump have framed the protests as
a "climate tyranny" out to oppress hard-working citizens.
On
Thursday, the farmers got official support from the Polish government, which is
trying to get Brussels to back down from its plans to cut emissions from the
agricultural sector. Agriculture Minister Henryk Kowalczyk, of the ruling
right-wing Law and Justice Party, met with Dutch farmers in Warsaw and endorsed
their cause.
“I will
support in the EU the position of the Dutch farmers to maintain production, and
I hope that their government will change its mind,” Kowalczyk said. “I will be
looking for allies among EU ministers — I have already found some — for our
position on stopping measures that could lead to a reduction in food production
in the EU. This is our common, important task.”
For the
protesters, the international support has boosted their cause, giving them attention
and support all the while putting the Dutch government on the back foot.
“We’re very
glad to have found allies in Europe who can help us in how the Dutch government
is treating us — basically wanting to wipe us off the map of the
Netherlands," Sieta van Keimpema, a board member of the Farmers Defense
Force, one of the leading organizations of Dutch farmers, told Polish MPs. She
blamed their struggles on the EU's flagship climate policy, known as the
European Green Deal.
Right movement
One Polish
MP, Jarosław Sachajko, a climate skeptic who represents the right-wing populist
party Kukiz’15 and met with van Keimpema, said being told to cut emissions is
akin to "good night stories for children or people who … think the Earth
is flat."
Other
leaders have used the protests to blame other totemic entities like the World
Economic Forum (WEF) and the EU. Dutch far-right MP Thierry Baudet called WEF
chief Klaus Schwab "Darth Vader" on Twitter and accused him and Dutch
Prime Minister Mark Rutte of trying to “demolish the farmers.”
For its
part, the Dutch government has largely been circumspect. The country's
agriculture minister warned that the farmers' actions — which included dumping
manure and stacks of hay on a highway and blocking traffic — would ensure them
"less and less support."
Andrej
Zaslove, associate professor at the Dutch Radboud University and a specialist
on populism, said the protest “taps into broader issues of identity” of the
farmers, making the protest a wedge issue. “It’s about [how] the farmers really
see their identity being challenged. It's kind of a way of life. And I think
this is something that the radical right picks up on.”
Former U.S.
President Donald Trump weighed in last weekend, saying the measures would mean
farmers would no longer be allowed to work their land.
Almost half
of people in the Netherlands support the protests, which are morphing into a
broader movement within the Netherlands too.
“It’s kind
of an anti-establishment protest,” Zaslove said, adding that some of its
backers believe “the state is not for the people.”
A
spokesperson for the Dutch agriculture ministry said: “This is not the way to
get ahead, we have to find a way forward together. The Dutch Cabinet wishes to
cooperate with all relevant parties to shape the sustainable future for
agriculture.”
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