User:Thomkopic/Dutch farmers protests

5 February 2020
The Farmers Defense Force announced a new protest, but canceled it in advance. Talks had been planned for the 5th of February, between the minister of agriculture Carola Schouten, prime minister Mark Rutte and the different protest groups. The reason the protest was canceled was allegedly because of new calculations of nitrogen emissions of the RIVM and the FDF wanting to wait for a better moment to organize a protest.

19 February 2020
The first protest in 2020 was on the 19th of February. Just like previous protests, this one was also organized by the Farmers Defense Force. However, the protest did not take place on the Malieveld in The Hague, because the city of The Hague and Staatsbosbeheer kindly asked them not to. The FDF reached out to the farmers and asked them to adhere to the rules. They protested on the Koekamp, a small park next to the Malieveld instead.

The second difference is the usage of highways. The Dutch National Police stated that they will enforce standard traffic rules. This resulted in a few farmers being pulled over and fined on different roads throughout the country for driving a tractor on motorways, despite the Farmers Defense Force stressing out farmers shouldn't make use of motor- or highways.

Different political parties were invited to speech at the protest. The PVV of Geert Wilders, Forum voor Democratie and CDA were invited. Ultimately only FvD and CDA were allowed by the Farmers defense Force to speech. Geert Wilders was rejected by the leaders of FDF. FDF-member Jeroen van Maanen said on the stage that Wilders would only come if there were camera’s or television crews and FDF would not allow that.

After the protest ended around 3pm, a few farmers made their way to the Ministry for Agriculture. They were stopped by the police before they could reach the ministry building. The farmers carried stickers of the FDF, which they wanted to put on the building.