Sour grapes
OPINION: As a country we should be celebrating Fonterra’s solid annual results announced last week.
A new party, led by farmers fighting cuts to nitrogen emissions, looked set to be the big winner in key Dutch regional elections last week.
Analysts predict the result could severely weaken the Dutch Government and, analysts suggest, herald a Europe-wide backlash against the green transition.
The BoerBurgerBeweging (Farmer-Citizen Movement, or BBB) was launched in 2019 and has just one MP, but its peopleagainst- the-elites platform has struck a chord with disaffected voters, and polls suggested it could finish as the secondlargest or even the largest party.
The elections matter not only because under the Dutch system they determine who sits in the senate – without whose backing bills cannot become law – but because it is provincial governments that put national government goals into action.
