Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, known as mr teflon Due to its resistance to all crises, it has encountered some unexpected enemies: the farmers and ranchers in the country who see their way of life in danger by the policy against climate change promulgated by the Executive.
the rightist party Peasant Movement has become the great winner of the regional elections by having 20% of the votes, according to the latest provisional results. These elections indirectly choose the composition of the Senate, which means that the Government presided over by the liberal Rutte has a serious obstacle on the way to launch your green agenda.
Despite its small size and its a priori few natural conditions for the primary sector, the Netherlands has experienced a true revolution in recent decades that has led it to become in the second countrybehind only the USA, in agricultural exports. A territory comparable to Aragon exports the same amount as France and Spain combined. Although part of this production is carried out in greenhouses and with avant-garde and environmentally friendly techniques, the cattle ranching boom has led to the country being a major nitrogen polluter.
In order to comply with the standards promulgated by Brussels, the Dutch Government has committed to reduce 75% of nitrogen compounds in crops in certain natural reserves and up to 50% of the land by 2030. In addition, the coalition government wants to reduce livestock farming by a third and is willing to buy land from farmers to relocate them or even to expropriation measures if they refuse to put their farms up for sale.
The good result of this party that defends farmers has not been a surprise, if one takes into account that since last summer this group has organized in different mass protests and there have even been violent altercations.
This movement has sympathies beyond the Dutch borders. Curiously, it has aroused the support of formations known for their Eurosceptic character such as the National Regrouping of Marine LePen or even your own donald trump. It is still too early to gauge the long-term repercussions of this formation, but its messages recall the gap opened in France by the “yellow vests” and their protests against the rise in fuel prices and make us reflect on how the rural world feels aggrieved by the urban elites.
The phenomenon is not good news for Brussels either, which has made the fight against climate change one of its great hallmarks. The EU has pledged to become the first territory in the world to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 and, for this reason, it has implemented different measures to reduce the use of pesticides in Agriculture.
Previously, it allowed some countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland and parts of Belgium and Italy to use up to 250 kilos of nitrogen from animal manure per hectare, a higher figure than other EU countries, due to the different performance of the grasslands and climate. But the poor quality of water in the Netherlands has made Brussels want to end this exceptional situation and hence the measures issued by the Dutch Government.
Some policies to fight against climate change are not only opposed in the agricultural and livestock world, but also in industry. To the great surprise of the European institutions, Germany decided two weeks ago to veto the regulations by surprise for ban the sale of combustion engine cars in the year 2035.
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