XPost: can.politics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.misc
XPost: uk.politics.misc, alt.politics.republicans, alt.politics.democrats
XPost: alt.politics.uk
From: d@ray
D. Ray wrote:
> BBC:
>
>> A farmers’ party has stunned Dutch politics, and is set to be the biggest
>> party in the upper house of parliament after provincial elections.
>
>> 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’t stay at home any longer. We won’t be
ignored any more.”
>
> The tagline for the BBC article claims that the Farmer-Citizen Movement
> party (BBB) is set to “be the biggest party in the upper house of
> parliament after provincial elections” after winning 20 seats. Later on in
> the piece they say the following.
>
>> A left-wing Green-Labour alliance is also on course to win 15 Senate
>> seats, while Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s four-party coalition is poised
>> to fall back to 24 – down eight seats.
>
> After a cursory reading my understanding is the the Dutch federal system is
> complicated. I can’t get a bead on the difference between the Upper and
> Lower house of parliament, but this is undoubtedly good news for their
> party.
>
> Wikipedia:
>
>> The Farmer–Citizen Movement was founded in October 2019 by an
>> agricultural marketing agency and agricultural journalist Caroline van
>> der Plas, in response to the widespread farmers protests that had taken
>> place earlier that month.On 17 October 2020, Van der Plas was unanimously
>> chosen as the party’s lijsttrekker. It won one seat at the 2021 general
election.
>
>> Despite the party only starting two years ago, the party has become
>> favorite to win 15 seats in the upcoming 2023 Dutch Senate election.
>
> From no seats to one in two years. From one seat to twenty just two years
> later.
>
> That is very impressive, and it shows what I’ve always said. Once you win
> that first seat voters start looking to you as a serious political party
> that isn’t just a waste of a vote. In a first past the post system things
> can flip extremely fast.
>
> Dutch News:
>
>> 3 Mark Rutte is a ‘happy single’. When asked about the conspicuous
>> absence of a significant other in his life, the prime minister says he
>> might have ‘a wife and kids’ one day. But not just yet. ‘The most
>> important thing to ask is “am I happy with how I live at the moment?”
And I am,’ he says.
>
> Mark Rutte is the “serving” Prime Minister of the Netherlands, and has
been
> since 2010. He’s also an unmarried 56 year old man and a conservative, make
> of that what you will. His “leadership” saw the country experience some
> more than spicy farmers protests last year, including a farmer getting shot
> at by the police, due to his insane anti-farmer legislation.
>
>> Turnout in Wednesday’s vote, estimated at 57.5%, was the highest for
>> years and the biggest loser of the night was the far-right Forum for
Democracy party.
>
> Far right?
>
> Wikipedia (Forum for Democracy Page):
>
>> Forum for Democracy (Dutch: Forum voor Democratie, FVD) is a right-wing
>> populist[24] Eurosceptic political party in the Netherlands that was
>> founded as a think tank by Thierry Baudet and Henk Otten in 2016. The
>> party first participated in elections in the 2017 general election,
>> winning two seats in the House of Representatives. In the 2019 provincial
>> elections, it won the most seats out of any party, although 61 out of 86
>> representatives have since defected.
>
>> At the time of its conception the FVD was considered a conservative
>> liberal and a eurosceptic movement positioned on the right-wing of the
>> political spectrum,[25] but after several founding members split from the
>> party it has been described as adopting more radical policies and
messages.[26][27]
>
> Sounds like Nigel Farage-tier fake populism to me. Apparently they had some
> “racism” controversies, but are big with the Covid-19 stuff. Looks like
> they’re the typical alt-lite useless types and people got sick of them. Any
> Dutch readers feel free to correct me on this.
>
> Back to the BBC.
>
>> For rural voters, the main incentive for backing the BBB was to protest
>> against cuts in nitrogen emissions, according to an Ipsos poll for public
broadcaster NOS.
> Commentator Ben Coates described the result as “something of an earthquake
> in Dutch politics”.
>
>> Although their policies are very much focused on opposing the
>> government’s environmental policies, he told the BBC most people would
>> characterise them as a right-wing, populist party that was quite anti-EU,
>> anti-immigration and in favour of banning burkas for Muslims.
>
>> She had to step back from public campaigning last year because of death
>> threats. She was told the same fate awaited her as Pim Fortuyn, a
>> populist leader assassinated days before the 2002 Dutch general election.
>
> If you aren’t getting death threats, you aren’t serious.
>
> Does this promise serious change? I can’t say for sure. But the Dutch
> Farmers Movement shows how fast things can change when you have mass
> discontentment and an vehicle to channel that into electoral victory.
>
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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