More than ten thousand Dutch farmers protested in the city of the Hague on Saturday, in response to the new European Union-backed climate change laws.
The Hague police allowed the farmers’ rally, but blocked their tractors from entering the city. “Thousands of farmers and anti-establishment demonstrators protested Saturday in a park in The Hague against Dutch government plans to reduce nitrate emissions,” the Associated Press reported Saturday. “Police said they stopped an unknown number of tractors that were headed for the farmers’ demonstration.”
The Dutch government has committed itself to meeting the EU targets on lowering greenhouse gas emissions, even if it means putting the country’s farmers out of business.
The farmers’ fear for their livelihood is not based on baseless conspiracy theories, but on the threats issued by the country’s government. The Dutch government wants to “convince farmers to reduce livestock herds or leave the industry to cut emissions,” The UK newspaper Financial Times reported recently.
Climate activists also held a counter-demonstration in the city, demanding an end to fossil fuel and the creation of more radical climate laws. “Elsewhere in the city, thousands of environmentalists blocked a major thoroughfare in an unauthorised protest against tax rules they say encourage the use of fossil fuels,” Reuters reported.
Germany’s state TV Deutsche Welle reported:
More than 10,000 Dutch farmers protested in The Hague on Saturday against the government’s plans to limit nitrogen emissions.The protests took place ahead of the March 15 provincial elections, which will indirectly select members of the national parliament’s upper house and could have an effect on proposals for reducing nitrate pollution.Police said they stopped an unknown number of tractors that were headed for the farmers’ demonstration. The city banned all but two “symbolic” tractors from participating, citing safety concerns.The protesters carried banners reading “No farmers, no food,” and, “There is no nitrogen ‘problem'” during the peaceful demonstration organized by the Farmers’ Defence Force group.Many also waved upside-down Dutch flags, which have become synonymous with farmers’ protests, and balloons with the logo of the far-right Forum for Democracy (FVD) party.https://twitter.com/EvaVlaar/status/1634644294182092801
The police were given emergency powers to crack down on protesting farmers. “Early on Saturday, the mayor of The Hague issued an emergency order granting police extra powers to enforce public order and ensure safety during the planned protests,” the Reuters reported.
“Police said in a statement they had begun intercepting farmers attempting to enter the city on tractors and turning them away. The Farmers Defence Force group leading the farmers’ demonstration, which has city approval, has encouraged people to arrive by bus,” the news agency added.
The protest took place ahead of Wednesday’s regional election that could impact the power balance in the national parliament’s upper house as it votes on new climate emission laws.
The protesting farmers received the backing of several right-wing parties, including Geert Wilders’ Dutch Freedom Party (PVV). The PVV leader dismissed the proposed emission regulations as “Leftist rubbish” that seeks to get rid of the country’s farming communities to “make room” for illegal immigrants who are swarming Europe from Muslim-dominated North Africa and the Middle East.
“The real aim here is to get rid of our farmers for some leftist Nitrogen agenda and make room for non western immigrants….something totally different than the current elite are telling the people,” Wilders told the Canadian news website Rebel News.
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