By Andrea Widburg
Last year, the Dutch government announced that it would seize 30% of Dutch farms to save the climate. This year, polling shows that the newly formed Boer-Burger Beweging (BBB), the farmers’ party, will be the largest single party in Parliament. However, the nature of the parliamentary system is that they still won’t have power, as it’s likely that two leftist parties will join for a voting majority.
For a long time, I’ve said that the left is returning us to a medieval world, one in which the world is dominated by a small group of rich, all-powerful aristocrats. The remainder of the people consists of a slightly larger group of “tradespeople” (i.e., the middle class), and a huge cohort of powerless, impoverished people who live in a world of darkness and hunger.
I’ve since rethought my theory. We’re not medieval, we’re Roman. The medieval world was a Biblical world, while we have reverted to a pagan world, complete with Earth worship and an intense focus on child sexuality. Ironically, though, it’s the powerful people’s Earth worship, though, that may change Holland’s political system for the better.
Most people don’t pay much attention to Holland, because it’s a very small country. That it was one of the most ideologically free countries in the world at the end of the Renaissance and beginning of the Enlightenment, as well as one of the wealthiest (probably thanks to its ideological liberty), doesn’t matter much when it’s just a corner of the European Union.
For that reason, nobody really noticed when the Dutch Parliament passed a law declaring that cattle farming—that is, providing nutrient-rich food for Holland and other countries—is killing Mother Gaia and must be ended. However, the cow patties hit the fan last summer, and for good reason:
According to calculations done by the Finance ministry, a whopping 11 200 livestock farmers will be forced to shut down by the government to reduce nitrogen emissions in order to meet European environmental rules. Another 17 600 farmers would need to reduce the amount of animals they keep to meet these climate goals.
And this is bad. Because there are about 54 000 farms in the Netherlands, meaning that around 1/5 of all farms will be forced to shut down and almost 1/3 of farms forced to scale down and reduce livestock.
Meaning that thousands and thousands of farmers will be losing their livelihoods in order to meet government climate goals.
The Dutch farmers opposed this madness heroically, with massive tractor protests, as well as protests using manure, a point only a farmer can really make.
Many of the Dutch people, being wiser than their politicians, were not angered by the protests, despite any inconvenience they caused. What upset them was the specter of pre-modern starvation. That’s probably why the BBB did very well in the last election:
As initial polling results show, Dutch farmers delivered a stunning blow to the country’s pro-EU establishment by emerging as the biggest political force in Wednesday’s regional elections.
The Boer-Burger Beweging (BBB), or Farmer-Citizen Movement, is set to become the largest party in the country’s senate, winning more seats than Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s ruling conservative VVD party.
According to exit polls, the farmers’ party will get more than 15 seats in a 75-seat senate, a body that has the power to block legislation passed by the lower house of parliament. “The BoerBurgerBeweging (Farmer-Citizen Movement), also known as the BBB, won almost 20 per cent of the vote, giving it 15 seats in the Senate, the upper house of parliament,” The Times of Londonreported.
But all is not wonderful in the lowlands. Holland has a parliamentary system, not a “winner take all” system. Getting lots of people into government doesn’t mean you get what you want (kind of like what happens when conservatives vote in Republicans, only to see them side with Democrats). Parliamentary systems are all about coalitions and, in this case, the second largest voting bloc will be the Groen-Links party (that is, the greenies). The third largest party is the VVD party, the current ruling party—the same one that went along with the Gaia worship in the first place.
Steven Hayward explains what that means:
So Dutch farmers did what every identifiable interest group does in a parliamentary system: they formed their own political party, Farmer-Citizen Movement Party, or BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB) in Dutch. In a high-turnout election earlier this week, the BBB collected 20 percent of the vote, the largest of any party on the ballot, and 15 of 75 seats in the Dutch Senate. However, the Green Party and a left-labor party also won 15 seats, and are said likely to be part of an ideologically incoherent four-party coalition with current Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s conservative VVD party. In other words, business as usual may continue.
This is example 12,186 of why I hate multi-party parliamentary systems.
In leftist land, even when you win, you lose. But perhaps in the next election, as the crazy green leftists continue to return Holland to a pre-modern state, the BBB will get enough votes to bring some sanity back to Dutch politics, and food back to the Dutch people.