A Vote on Cows

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A Dutch farmer’s protest party secured a major victory in this week’s provincial elections that will determine the make-up of the parliament’s upper house, a win that also underscores a setback for the environmental policies of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Politico reported Thursday.

Exit polls projected that the Farmer Citizen Movement (BBB) is set to win 15 of 75 seats in the upper house, while Rutte’s center-right party will drop from 12 to 10 seats.

The results surprised many analysts and pundits, considering that the BBB was only formed three years ago and only has one seat in the lower house, Reuters noted.

But over the past few years, the party has ridden a wave of discontent with the government’s policies aimed at lowering nitrogen emissions from farms, which prompted large farmers’ demonstrations last summer.

The ruling coalition plans to cut nitrogen emissions in the Netherlands in half by 2030 by restricting the number of cows and also fertilizer use, which at current levels pollutes the soil and water to such an extent that it breaches European Union regulations.

But the BBB says the issue has been exaggerated and that proposed solutions would negatively impact farmers and would result in the closure of numerous farms and food production shortages.

Analysts noted that BBB’s victory is a major blow for Rutte’s ruling coalition in carrying out its environmental strategies because the rural party will now have the power to block legislation agreed upon in the lower house.

Others also described the results as a referendum on Rutte’s government, whose approval rating has dropped to 20 percent, according to Reuters.