By Bond Robertson 
The peasant protest party BBB was the big winner in the Dutch provincial elections on Wednesday. The party, which received 1% of the vote in 2021, has become the largest party.
According to polls on election day one, BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB), in the Norwegian farmers’ movement, is likely to win 15 of the 75 seats in the assembly, which has the power to block laws passed in the lower house.
The party has only one representative elected to the House of Commons in the 2021 election.
The surprise result of the election comes after a huge wave of farmers’ protests against the Rutte government’s climate policy.
Dutch farmers were very unhappy with the government’s proposal to take drastic measures to reduce the number of livestock and thus reduce nitrogen pollution.
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Recently Dutch farmers supplied empty store shelves, blocked roads with their tractors and sprayed cow dung on public buildings. But it was only when Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, political commentator and presenter, discovered her that she really took off.
– No one can ignore us anymore. BBB leader Caroline van der Plaas told Radio 1 on Wednesday that voters had spoken out very clearly against government policy.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s liberal-right VVD has gone from twelve seats to ten. Rutte’s government has not had a majority in the upper house since the last regional elections in 2019 and is forced to negotiate deals with largely left-wing opposition parties.
The two most willing to cooperate, PvdA and Green GL, are likely to keep their seats. In this case, there may be enough support for the Rutte government.