According to Koffeman, the big farms are hoping the cabinet will fall soon and then they can “really exert a heavy influence on the new composition.” ‘You can see that they have really put together a campaign worth millions. A larger campaign took place than ever before in Dutch parliamentary history. And it contains a lot of disinformation, a lot of falsehoods.’
“It can be seen that they have really organized a campaign worth millions”
framing
As an example, Koffeman cites the “No Fishing, No Healthy Seas” campaign. ‘Of course it’s too crazy to think about (…), it’s really ridiculous (…). And you also see, for example, that the big agro has created a website. ‘Give farmers a future’ and with some kind of electoral guide. And if you say “yes” to all the questions, you will get BoerBurgerBeweging as a voting board, and if you say “no” to all the questions, too. No matter what kind of answers you give, always vote for the BoerBurgerBeweging.’
Koffe acknowledges that many family farms are doing poorly. Partly because those farmers have no estate, but also because lenders like Rabobank force the farmer to grow because otherwise the farmers would not get credit. “So those farmers are in trouble. And even those farmers are in trouble with all the promises made by politicians.
“Even those farmers are in trouble with all the promises made by politicians”
4 years of power
According to Koffe, many voters will vote for a party like BBB, but the party, like the Forum at the time, will then lose many seats. In the House of Representatives, but not in the Senate. Clever, Koffe thinks: if a government falls, voters can decide on its composition, ‘but the result of the Senate, the Provincial Council and the water commissions is fixed for four years. This means they have a say for four years when that party achieves a dominant position. And that dominance is greater than the number of seats they win themselves, because there is also a huge fallout on farm parties like CDA and VVD.
bullshits
Koffe predicts that farm parties will eventually effectively frustrate nitrogen policy and that the country will become ungovernable. He thinks the tide is hard to turn. ‘When you drive down the highways, every mile you see a big billboard in a meadow of BBB entries, ‘no beer without a farmer’ and ‘no food without a farmer.’ Which of course is just bullshit, because 75 percent of the food we consume in the Netherlands comes from abroad and 80 percent of the food we produce here goes abroad. So those farmers don’t feed the Dutch population at all, but they pretend to be.’
“No beer without a farmer” and “No food without a farmer”. Which of course is really just bullshit’
Hear BNR’s full Big Five conversation here