Is a Farmers’ Party a good idea?
On 16 March last, the newly established Dutch Boer Burger Beweging (BBB) (Farm-Citizen Movement) secured 15 out of the 75 seats of the Senate, the upper house of the Dutch Parliament.
Image by Roel Wijnants, Flickr.com
The movement, founded by farming journalist Caroline van der Plas in 2019, had been established in response to drastic new nitrogen regulations, which it said would disproportionately and drastically affect farmers, causing numerous farm closures and food shortages. The electoral success follows from a series of mass protests against the regulations imposed, and the lack of respect for and collaboration with farmers. The protests spanned over three years, involving thousands of Dutch farmers and their farm machinery blocking the streets and roads of the country. There is a very good Wikipedia page on the chronology and details of the protests – a few of them violent, many very disruptive, and some benevolent, involving the distribution of free food to the public.
Following from the election, political commentators said the BBB could well form an alliance with far-right parties to block some of the regulations – the Dutch Senate has the power to block legislation agreed in the Lower House of the Parliament. This has caused major pressure on the governing coalition of Prime Minister Mark Rutte and has cast serious uncertainty over the environmental objectives of his government.
The movement has received global media coverage. It has captured the imagination of farmers the world over, who are facing more challenging environmental and climate-related rules and feel unfairly singled out over more fossil fuel intensive sectors.
Unsurprisingly, the prospect of forming a party for farmers, and maybe also rural folk, is being discussed in Ireland. BBB founder Ms van der Plas was invited to speak at a recent farmers’ meeting in Athlone, where she urged farmers to form a party to contest next year’s local elections.
So, is forming a Farmers’ Party the best way to ensure farmers are consulted, supported and treated fairly in the face of increased environmental regulations?
Not a new idea in Ireland
There is (at least) one precedent in Ireland for a farmers’ party, imaginatively called the Farmers’ Party, or the Farmers’ Union. Formed before the establishment of the Free State, it won seven seats in the 1922 general election, rising to 15 in 1923, and the party went on to win three seats in the 1925 Seanad election. In a complex political context – about which you can read more here – the party lost the majority of its seats as a result of policy disagreements between larger and smaller farmers on trade (free-trade versus protectionism). The party did not manage to maintain an independent voice: it disbanded in 1932 and its last three TDs joined a newly established National Centre Party.
Single-issue parties rarely remain single-issue for long
The Dutch BBB had previously gained a single Lower House seat at the latest general election in 2021. Political commentators in the Netherlands have pointed out that, while the BBB is ostensibly claiming to represent farmers frustrated with the severity of nitrates regulations, its popularity and improved electoral results owe much to the growing distrust of the government and anger over immigration.
It seems the BBB, which stemmed from the farmer protests about nitrogen crackdowns, provided an outlet for many other malcontents, whose real, long-term support for farming issues remains untested. In that, it is similar to France’s Gilets Jaunes protests in 2018/19. They started with an online petition over an increase in the carbon tax on motor fuel and ended up as a veritable insurrection against President Macron, his government, the French constitution and even representative democracy. While there is no Gilets Jaunes party in France, the movement has undoubtedly fed into the growing electoral support for extreme right parties and candidates.
The value of political independence
Reflecting on this topic brought me back to my 2000 Nuffield report, about farmers’ unions strategies to deal with the challenges of representing farming and rural issues.
One of my most definite recommendations was the need for political neutrality and independence for farmers’ union to be effective on behalf of their members. This was largely informed by what I had seen in the US between the American Farm Bureau and the (US) National Farmers’ Union, whose “stars rise and fall as Republicans and Democrats succeeded each other in the White House”. Political alignment was also an issue in Germany, where I met with the main farmers’ union the Deutscher Bauern Verband. They had then been closely aligned with Helmut Kohl’s CDU party and found it very difficult to make any headway with the socialist/green coalition government which followed.
My own conclusion was that to be effective, a farmers’ union needed to be not only politically independent of all parties, but to constitutionally oblige elected union officials to resign if they wish to become actively involved in political parties or put themselves forward for election to local, national or European office.
Beyond that, I also identified the importance of cultivating ongoing relationships with all political parties, so as to be in a position to engage and influence them on all relevant issues as the need arises.
Retrograde climate policy would destroy farmers’ reputation and endanger their social licence
What made most of us take note of the new Dutch party is that it was born out of appallingly handled and drastically impactful environmental regulations, which threatened to damage the very fabric of the Dutch agriculture, forcing many farmers out of business. The fact that nitrates regulations are a hot topic in Ireland have made the protests even more relatable.
Many of us in the agricultural sector have emphasised the need for climate and environmental policy and regulations as they apply to farmers to be fair and proportionate, strongly supported (technically as well as financially) and be accompanied by due recognition of farmers’ contribution to national climate action. Hence, most of us were sympathetic towards the plight of the Dutch farmers and how shabbily they were treated.
However, elements in the movement have enabled the mischaracterisation of Dutch farmers as climate deniers, deniers of the nitrates ‘problem’ in the Netherlands, and as rejecting the part they do have in reducing emissions and their environmental footprint.
Irish farmers have already proven that they are willing and able, with the necessary supports, to play a fundamental part in providing climate and environmental solutions. I believe they need to mind very carefully their reputation in this space to ensure they do not lose their social licence.
Prioritise democratic, well-resourced farmers’ unions which capture diversity
You will have gathered by now that I am not much in favour of a Farmers’ Party. It can’t survive long on a single issue, it runs the risk of becoming beholden to unsavoury bedfellows diluting or even hijacking its initial mandate, it may be quite ineffective in influencing policies if not in government, and in the rough and tumble of national politics, it may damage farmers’ social licence when it comes to climate and the environment.
I believe the interest of farmers is far better served by quality farmers unions with solid democratic structures and strong elected leaders. Farmers should prioritise resourcing those unions well, to ensure they have the capacity to recruit good people who can produce solid, well-founded strategies balancing farmers’ interests with necessary environmental action in the context of national and European policies. They must command respect from government and industry as well as farmer members.
Most of all, those unions need to have robust governance to ensure they are genuinely representative of and as diverse as their membership. They must equip themselves with the necessary electoral tools to recruit representatives with a balance of genders, of sectors, of age groups, of farm sizes and economic importance among their elected representatives.
The superficial attraction of a shiny new Farmers’ Party could fade quickly with little positive result at best. Well-structured, properly diverse representative farmers’ organisations which hold to account parties of every hue and ensure farming and agriculture stays high on their agendas will go a much longer way.
© Catherine Lascurettes, Cúl Dara Consultancy
