Reuters
–
NOS News•yesterday, 21:57
—
The colors of the national flags are the same whether you invert them or not, but for the rest, at first glance, the Dutch farmer’s protests have little to do with the United States. Yet America’s previous president Donald Trump praised the Dutch farmers last weekend According to him “bravely oppose the Dutch government’s climate tyranny”.
–
Trump’s comments are by no means isolated. In recent weeks, remarkable statements of support from right-wing nationalists from different countries for the farmers’ protests in the Netherlands. In France, for example, Marine Le Pen . spoke expresses her support to the Dutch peasant movement. Right-wing populist American and Canadian media sent reporters to the Netherlands to cover the protests.
–
On Fox News, former candidate MP for Forum for Democracy Eva Vlaardingerbroek with conspiracy theories and a red handkerchief around her neck was allowed to indicate the farmers’ protests on the show from host Tucker Carlson. During a farmer’s solidarity protest at the dam on Saturday, one of the invited speakers was Trump’s former security adviser Michael Flynn, who has been convicted of lying to the FBI about contacts with the Russian ambassador to the US. He addressed the audience via video link.
–
Watch Trump’s comments about Dutch farmers here:
–
–
Trump supports Dutch farmers: ‘Terrible what is happening there’
—
All this support from abroad for the peasants comes from the nationalist quarter. Nevertheless, radicalism expert Jelle van Buuren of Leiden University is not surprised that the Dutch farmers’ protests across the border are being seized upon by the radical right: “Padoxically, there is an internationalization of nationalism. The grievances from different countries are spreading through an international digital ecology.” On social media, radical right-wing politicians are in contact with conspiracy theorists, corona activists, radicalized farmers and influencers from all kinds of countries.
–
What seems to unite the groups is a distrust of institutions and an aversion to what they see as an elitist globalist establishment, says Van Buuren. Every protest that falls somewhat within that framework is deliberately used to make one’s own agenda more visible. Earlier this year, this happened, for example, with the trucker protests in Canada. Van Buuren: “Now that corona has shifted somewhat to the background, the farmers have replaced it.”
–
Conspiracy theories that were previously heard during protests against, among other things, corona measures, are recycled around the farmers’ protest. For example, various groups claim that the Dutch nitrogen policy is inspired by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and is part of the Great Reset that WEF founder Klaus Schwab would like to enforce.
–
EU-subsidies
You may wonder what all these groups really have in common ideologically. Radical right-wing politicians, such as the Forum for Democracy, say they fight against globalism and therefore support the peasant protest. At the same time, there are few sectors that benefit economically from globalism as much as the agricultural sector in the Netherlands. About 80 percent of Dutch farmers’ production is exported.
–
Van Buuren: “These paradoxes are taken for granted. That is political pragmatism that is not unique to these groups.” But there are plenty of farmers who have little interest in Forum for Democracy: “They say: ‘Baudet wants out of the EU, that would be the death blow for us’. In addition to export, farmers also derive a large part of their income from EU subsidies. “
–
Whether the motley international company of all kinds of protest groups, radical media and politicians will survive remains to be seen: “New grievances are being inserted into an old agenda. With this, politicians like Trump hope to create an unstable political climate and become stronger as a movement. But the bond between the groups can also turn out to be temporary and opportunistic once the issues raised are resolved.”
—
