The BBB, the farmers’ party, sweeps the Dutch regionals and corners Mark Rutte

He Peasant-Citizen Movement (BBB, for BoerBurgerBeweging), which mainly represents the interests of the agricultural sector from the Netherlands, it’s already the party with the most representation in the 12 provincial councils voted in the regional elections, according to data published this Friday by the electoral service of the Netherlands, putting the Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte.

The votes in Utrecht were the last to be counted and the BBB is also the largest party in this province with 13.2% of the vote, followed by the green left GroenLinks with 12.8%, and then there are Mark Rutte’s Liberals (VVD), who have achieved 11.9% of electoral support, says the Dutch agency ANP.

This means that BBB is the largest party in all 12 provinces of the Netherlands, who have held elections last Wednesday to choose their new councils, the same ones that next May choose the composition of the Dutch Senate, where the center-right coalition led by Rutte will not have a majorityand will have to seek support from the opposition to pass their proposals, even if they have received the backing of Parliament.

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A serious warning to Rutte

Rutte assured ANP that this massive BBB victory is “a very clear cry to the politicians” and one “very clear signal” of Dutch voters, although he admitted that he still does not know how to interpret that message from the electorate and stressed that it is too early to make a “full analysis” of the consequences of these results.

Until now, the coalition government did not have a majority in the Senate either because the four parties that make it up had already lost space in this Chamber in 2019, which was won by the far-right Forum for Democracy (FvD), a party that was also relatively new at the time. , but who has succumbed to conspiracy theories in these years, suffering a electoral bump.

The massive victory of the center-right party BBB will translate in 16 or 17 of the 75 seats in the Senate Dutch when he is elected in May, according to ANP forecasts, while the left-wing bloc that will form the Greens and the Social Democrats (PvdA) will add 15 senators.

The Cfour coalition parties -liberals of the VVD, Christian Democrats CDA, progressives D66 and Unión Cristiana CU- will add around 24 seats, so they will have to decide whether to negotiate the support of the left block or the center right BBB in the Senate to reach the necessary majority during the voting on bills and proposals.

Besides, the participation in these elections was 57.7%one and a half points above the same elections in 2019, and it has been the highest turnout since the late eighties.