The pro-farmer populist party that upended the political establishment in The Netherlands has selected a former government minister who was sacked for her opposition to coronavirus passports as their candidate for prime minister in the race to replace globalist PM Mark Rutte.
Caroline van der Plas, the charismatic leader of the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BoerBurgerBeweging/BBB), said this week that she will not enter the fray to become the next Dutch prime minister, announcing that former State Secretary for Economic Affairs Mona Keijzer will represent the tractor protest party in the November elections of the House of Representatives.
“I am really very happy and proud that Mona wants to enter the Chamber for us, but also, if BBB enters a coalition, is willing to become prime minister,” van der Plas said per De Telegraaf. “We think she is a huge whopper.”
Keijzer left the centre-right Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party last month, the culmination of a series of disputes that soured relations between her and the top brass of the party. Chief among those, was the controversial step by the Rutte coalition government to sack her from her cabinet post in the autumn of 2021 over her fierce opposition to the introduction of coronavirus passports.
With her, the former State Secretary brought along three other CDA members, Lilian Helder, Nicki Pouw-Verweij, and Derk Jan Eppink, who will all defect to the farmer party in the House of Representatives, taking BBB’s total to four in the lower chamber of the Dutch bicameral parliament.
In March, the Farmer-Citizen Movement swept to a shock victory in the provincial elections, becoming the largest party in the Senate after being heavily outspent and only forming as a political party in 2019. The electoral success was driven by anger in the rural regions of the country against plans from the Rutte government to impose EU green agenda policies to shut down thousands of privately owned farms.
Although the Rutte government ultimately collapsed in July, the battle over the Great Reset-style policies will continue into the upcoming elections, with the EU’s chief green agenda architect, Frans Timmermans, announcing last week that he will throw his hat into the ring to become the next Dutch PM.
At present, it does not seem that the BBB could gain enough support to see Keijzer become prime minister. However, it is possible that the pro-farmer party could enter into government as a coalition partner of popular MP Pieter Omtzigt’s new party, which is currently at the top of the polls, projected to pick up 31 seats in the House, leading Timmermans leftist green PvdA-GroenLink coalition at 28 seats. With a 76 seats being required for the majority needed to form a government, either side will likely require two or more coalition partners.
BBB Party leader Caroline van der Plas has openly made overtures to Omtzigt to apparently indicate her willingness to form a coalition with him, calling Omtzigt the “best MP we have.”
As to why van der Plas chose not to enter the race for prime minister, she said that it would be “ridiculous” for her to become PM as she has only recently entered politics. She went on to joke that she doesn’t enjoy flying, saying: “As prime minister you have to fly all over the world, I don’t like that at all. Then I would say: Let Biden come here.”