Farmers threaten to shut down the whole of the Netherlands on Monday

Farmers are being called on social media to ‘flatten the whole of the Netherlands’ on Monday. For example, they threaten to block Schiphol Airport, Eindhoven Airport, the Port of Rotterdam and all distribution centers for food. “This call is great”, says farmer Bertie Steur in Good Morning Netherlands on NPO 1. Jan Struijs, chairman of the Dutch Police Association (NPB), emphasizes that this is simply “criminal behaviour”.

The call serves as an ultimatum. If politics doesn’t wipe the current nitrogen plans off the table before Monday, the country will be shut down. “Our government is not yet impressed by the actions of the agricultural sector and rural people. Time for major promotions from Monday, July 4, 2022. Close the Netherlands, but keep it tidy,” reads one of the calls that is frequently shared in Telegram and WhatsApp groups.

“Of course they are now looking at where even more nitrogen emissions come from, and why those sectors are not being tackled. That’s the thinking behind it,” says Steur. According to her, the call is a response from “farmers who don’t know anymore”. “This is really desperation,” she says. “Farmers don’t just get rid of their farms.”

The farmers are called upon to organize the actions from their own region. Farmers’ action group Agractie claims to have seen the call, but says it is not involved with the organization.

Steur finds it difficult to say exactly how broadly this call will be supported. She herself is from Zeeland. “We are quiet there, but of course there are also few livestock there,” she explains. “There is ‘relatively’ little going on there. If you look for more livestock, there is a lot going on. Those people see that if these plans go ahead, their business is just done.”

Other rioters

But she also warns against the people who have nothing to do with the agricultural sector and who come to these kinds of protests just to “riot”. “They agree with that. And that’s what you get on Monday, which will eventually flatten the country.”

NPB chairman Struijs endorses this. “We already saw that during the corona riots, and we have now seen that in The Hague last week,” he says. “These people are only out to disrupt the government, with as much violence as possible.”

‘Zero understanding’ for call

Struijs has no understanding of the call that is currently going around. “It’s just criminal behavior,” he emphasizes. “That creates so much insecurity, in everything, and that is also just an attack on your democracy.”

It’s not just about the fact that the farmers want to ‘bring down society’, but also about the continuous intimidation that accompanies the protests, says Struijs. He cites a situation that occurred yesterday as an example. “If you want to take tractors off the road, you need companies that you hire, and even those companies are now under threat.”

Ideas are also exchanged in the chat groups to hinder the police and riot police, Omroep Brabant writes. For example, there is talk of throwing water balloons containing paint and olive oil at riot police, so that they can no longer see anything and cannot continue. “We have to exhaust the agents,” it is said. “There are more of us, keep officers busy as long as possible so that enforcement is no longer possible.”

ALSO READ: Dutch Police Association: farmer protests draw very heavily on police officers

‘Protests distract from real solution’

Struijs calls it “sin”. “I’ve also talked to farmers, I’ve talked to LTO chairman Sjaak van der Tak, and there’s plenty to talk about to get out of this,” he says. The protests distract from the real solution, he thinks.

Sturgeon thinks there are “no doubt still farmers who are willing to talk”. But the problem, according to the farmer’s wife, “is that there has been talk for two years,” she says. “And what we see now is that nothing has happened to it. Fine, then let’s talk, but listen too. Because talking and doing nothing with it won’t get you anywhere.”

Schiphol Airport and Eindhoven Airport have announced that they are awaiting further information about the announced farmer protests.