Dutch farmers to stage another protest

You probably saw or read something about the protest held by farmers on October 1 in The Hague. Well, there’s another protest coming soon - on October 16, to be exact. This time, all we know about the location is that it will be somewhere in the Randstad (urban conglomeration).

Farmers fed up

During the last protest, thousands of farmers went to The Hague to protest against the current agricultural policy. They were fed up with not being appreciated and too often getting the blame for the country’s nitrogen emission problems. The proposal to cut down on livestock to mitigate nitrogen emissions seems to have been the final straw.

The coming strike is organised by the Farmers Defence Force, one of the two groups that organised the last strike. The organiser of this strike anticipates that even more tractors will participate and thus cause a lot more nuisance for traffic. Last time, two motorways were blocked by long queues of tractors. It’s not only farmers expected to join in, either - Mark van den Oever, founder of the Farmers Defence Force, anticipates that civilians will also participate.

Agractie, which co-ordinated last week’s protest, is not currently involved in the October 16 strike. However, the group could still decide to take part in the next few days. ‘We are aware of it and have talked about it with Farmers Defence Force, but for the moment we are not involved,’ said Bart Kemp from Agractie.

What form will the strike take?

It’s still unclear what form the strike will take, but what we do know is that it will involve tractors, along with cars, buses and lorries, and be held somewhere in the Randstad. It’s also possible that the strike will be a long one, as Farmers Defence Force advises those taking part to make sure they have enough food and drinks, warm clothing, flashlights, extra batteries for phones and possibly stuff for sleeping in. They want to protest against the “real polluters of the Netherlands”, which apparently does not include Schiphol Airport.