XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.misc, can.politics   
   XPost: uk.politics.misc, alt.politics.republicans, alt.politics.democrats   
   XPost: alt.politics.uk   
   From: d@ray   
      
   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)