The Farmer–Citizen Movement (, BBB) is an agrarian

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. It is headquartered in

Deventer Deventer (; Sallands: ) is a city and municipality in the Salland historical region of the province of Overijssel, Netherlands. In 2020, Deventer had a population of 100,913. The city is largely situated on the east bank of the river IJssel, bu ...

Overijssel Overijssel (, ; nds, Oaveriessel ; german: Oberyssel) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands located in the eastern part of the country. The province's name translates to "across the IJssel", from the perspective of the ...

. The current party leader is

Caroline van der Plas Carolina Ann Maria "Caroline" van der Plas (; born 6 June 1967) is a Dutch journalist and politician who has served as a member of the House of Representatives since 2021. A former member of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), which she left ...

, who founded it in 2019. Unlike most of its agrarian counterparts in Europe, the BBB generally takes a populistic approach to its politics and tends to co-operate in Parliament with the more right-of-centre parties.

History

The Farmer–Citizen Movement was founded in October 2019 by an agricultural marketing agency and agricultural journalist

, 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 In politics, a lead candidate (; , ) is the leader of a political party in an election to a legislative body. In parliamentary systems, it is often the party's nominee for the position of head of government. In open list electoral systems, it is ...

''. It won one seat at the 2021 general election.

Ideology

In the

2021 Dutch general election General elections were held in the Netherlands from 15 to 17 March 2021 to elect all 150 members of the House of Representatives. Following the elections and lengthy coalition formation talks, the sitting government remained in power. The elect ...

, the Farmer–Citizen Movement focused its campaign on issues important to rural and agrarian voters, including pledges for a "Ministry of the Countryside" located at least 100 kilometers from

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

, and a removal of the ban on

neonicotinoids Neonicotinoids (sometimes shortened to neonics ) are a class of neuro-active insecticides chemically similar to nicotine, developed by scientists at Shell and Bayer in the 1980s. The neonicotinoid family includes acetamiprid, clothianidin, din ...

. The party called for a Right to Agriculture Act which would allow for farmers to have more say on agricultural expansion matters. This was in response to local opposition to

pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus ...

and goat farms for public health, environmental and agricultural concerns. On economics and foreign policy, the party supports reform of the

Eurozone The euro area, commonly called eurozone (EZ), is a currency union of 19 member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (€) as their primary currency and sole legal tender, and have thus fully implemented EMU policies ...

and calls for a "Northern currency and a Southern currency" in the European Union. It supports Dutch membership of the EU for trading purposes but wants to reduce the power of the EU "to a level of how the EEC was once intended" and opposes the EU becoming a Federal Superstate. Caroline van der Plas has stated that the

Party for the Animals The Party for the Animals ( nl, Partij voor de Dieren; PvdD) is a List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands. Among its main goals are animal rights and animal welfare. Since 2019, the PvdD's political lead ...

and

Wakker Dier Wakker Dier is a Dutch animal welfare organisation. ''Wakker Dier'' is Dutch for "awoken animal". Its main purpose is putting an end to factory farming. Wakker Dier was founded in 1997 and fused with the organisation ''Lekker Dier'' in 2001, but t ...

are two of the party's biggest rivals, and the party uses its social media to provide the alternative perspective to be heard.

Electoral results

House of Representatives

References

External links