AMSTERDAM: Dutch farmers have protested for the third day in a row against planned environmental regulations. At the German border, the A1 motorway near Oldenzaal was blocked with tractors for more than two hours on Wednesday.
There were smaller protests at various places in the country. In the east, police provisionally arrested 10 people for acts of violence and attempted manslaughter the previous day.
Farmers had broken through a police checkpoint in front of a minister’s private house during the night, severely damaging police cars, blocking highways and setting fires.
The escalation of the protests was met with horror by government officials and police.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who was in Madrid attending a Nato summit, lashed out at the farmers who rushed a minister’s home, saying they were “exceeding all bounds.”
Protesting farmers broke through a cordon around the home of Environment Minister Christianne van der Wal overnight to dump animal slurry. “You do not dump slurry, alarm children and endanger families,” Rutte said.
Hundreds of farmers had also gathered in front of the provincial building in Leeuwarden, Friesland on Wednesday. There were also spontaneous rallies in front of other town halls.
The planned environmental regulations are coming into place to counter emissions of oxides of nitrogen.
Threats have been made against politicians at other locations, police vehicles damaged and fires deliberately set.
The head of the police, Willem Woelders, said that aggression by the farmers was increasing and was directed at the police and emergency services as well as at politicians.
Representatives of farmers’ associations distanced themselves from the violence.
The protests are directed at government moves to sharply cut the emissions of oxides of nitrogen across the country and close to nature conservation areas in particular, where emissions must be reduced by 70 per cent.
The government’s own figures indicate that around 30 per cent of livestock farmers could be pushed out of business because the rules would mean fewer farm animals.
Livestock produce manure that releases ammonia. This gets into the air and the high nitrogen concentrations are especially harmful for natural areas. The concentrations are much higher than in the rest of Europe because of the intensive cattle breeding in the Netherlands.
Dutch emissions have exceeded European Union norms for more than 30 years. In 2019, the country’s highest court ruled that the government had to take measures to ensure that the limits were observed.
One consequence was that construction projects near natural areas were no longer approved. The maximum speed on highways was reduced from 120 to 100 kilometres per hour. Now the government has presented a plan to reduce nitrogen. And this will hit cattle farmers hard. — dpa
