Members of parliament from coalition parties VVD and CDA strongly oppose the nitrogen plans of this cabinet. Farmers are also angry and announce that they are going back to the streets with their tractors.
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More than four hundred VVD members will submit a motion to the VVD congress on Saturday in which they appeal to the cabinet and the House of Representatives faction: ‘Don’t do this to the Netherlands. Don’t let nitrogen stop all progress and suffocate our country.’ They also declare that ‘agricultural companies should not be sacrificed to an outdated theoretical method’. The fact that even the coalition parties are turning against these cabinet plans at the provincial level is a problem, because the provinces have to implement those nitrogen measures correctly.
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From Drenthe to South Holland and Gelderland; Criticism of the rigorous nitrogen plans is mounting from all parts of the Netherlands.
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Strong resistance
The largest farmers’ organisation, LTO Nederland, ‘is calling on provinces to vigorously resist the impossible dictates of The Hague’, according to chairman Sjaak van der Tak. He is counting on Provincial Council factions to throw the ass against the crib. ,,I expect opposition in the provinces from CDA and VVD. It is already insurrection in some departments.”
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This looks like a baldness
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The LTO leader does not want to anticipate whether farmers’ protests will follow. On Wednesday, LTO Netherlands will speak with the cabinet. According to the former CDA director, the plans that are now in place go much further than what was agreed in the coalition agreement. “It looks like a stroke.”
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That also comes up against Johan Moes of the VVD Drenthe. “We believe that farmers are also part of the solution.” According to him, the plan has been ‘thrown over the fence’ and now only the farmers are the victims of the nitrogen approach. CDA MP Derk Boswijk shares this concern. Together with deputies and members of parliament, he submitted an alternative plan to Minister Henk Staghouwer of Agriculture and Christianne van der Wal for Nature and Nitrogen.
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Taking advantage
Forty involved VVD members debated the nitrogen plans with their VVD minister in The Hague on Friday. There were harsh words, says Gelders VVD celebrity Hans Boxem. “Minister, what are you doing now?” said several States members.” Achterhoeker Boxem is afraid that CDA and VVD in particular will be settled during the Provincial Council elections early next year. “Parties such as Boer Burger Movement and JA21 will benefit from this.”
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The result of the provincial elections determines the distribution of seats in the Senate. The cabinet is already faced with the fact that it does not have a majority in the Senate. If parties such as CDA and VVD lose voters to, for example, the Boer Citizen Movement – which is now doing well in the polls – it will only become more difficult.
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According to the leaked plans, nitrogen emissions must be reduced by 70 to 80 percent in some areas. At the Veluwe – the largest nature reserve in the Netherlands – there is even talk of reducing emissions by 100 percent. Members of parliament of the VVD and CDA do not like that.
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Full of incomprehension
VVD member of parliament Willemien Meeuwissen from Drenthe reacts incomprehensibly to the nitrogen approach of her party colleague, Minister for Nature and Nitrogen Christianne van der Wal: ,,We do not understand it at all. It’s not liberal at all what she’s doing!” CDA member of parliament Daisy Vliegenthart from Gelderland says she is ‘extremely shocked’ by those intentions. “If it stays with these drastic plans, we can’t support it.”
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The cabinet has been struggling with the nitrogen dossier for three years. In 2019, the Council of State put an end to the then nitrogen approach, called the Nitrogen Approach Program (PAS). As a result, the issuance of licenses to farms was stopped. Other activities that release nitrogen, such as road and construction projects, also came to a standstill.
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Farmers’ organizations are now preparing actions. They are waiting for Friday, when the minister will announce the nitrogen plans. ,,But I have the feeling that we have to start the tractors again after that. So be ready”, foreman Mark van den Oever addresses the members of Farmers Defense Force. Agriculture foreman Bart Kemp agrees: ,,If necessary, we can take action in the short term. Our approach is a protest that is as broad as possible, together with other farmers’ organizations.”
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