The Hague not expecting big farmers protest today; Protest leader accused of doxxing

The municipality of The Hague does not expect farmers to come to the city en masse to demonstrate on Thursday. A spokesperson for mayor Jan van Zanen said that the city has “no reason at all” to assume that the demonstrators will show up in large numbers or that their protest will lead to “disorder.” Someone, presumably the Farmers Defense Force, put the contact details of CDA politicians involved in agriculture online on Wednesday. They’ve been relentlessly harassed.

The municipality of The Hague hoped to get in touch with the farmers’ action group Farmers Defense Force (FDF), which announced the protest. “So that we can safely facilitate the demonstration,” the spokesperson said, adding that the city would take appropriate measures if necessary.

FDF plans to demonstrate in The Hague from noon on Thursday, at a location the FDF won’t announce until the last minute. FDF foreman Mark van den Oever said on Wednesday that he expects “large groups’ of farmers to travel to The Hague. Earlier, he spoke about thousands of people.

On Thursday morning, there weren’t many signs of farmers heading towards The Hague. De Stentor reported that the police stopped a group of tractors from getting onto the A1 at Bathmen on Thursday morning. But by 7:23 a.m., Rijkswaterstaat had not reported any problems.

On Wednesday evening, farmers on tractors were spotted in several places in the country. Farmers blocked the street to the town hall of Coevorden in Drenthe. There were several tractors in front of the town hall with upside-down flags. At the Witte Paal junction in the municipality of Hardenberg, where the N36 and N34 roads converge, a group of farmers on tractors also gathered on Wednesday evening. According to RTV Oost, the road was not blocked, but the farmers carried banners with texts like “enough = enough.”

CDA politicians harassed after doxing

CDA parliamentarian Eline Vedder is “pretty sick” of it: since her phone number was published online, presumably by FDF, she’s received “non-stop telephone calls and texts.” She’s been inundated “with advice” and what would happen if she didn’t take it.

Vedder will speak on behalf of the CDA during a debate on the collapsed agricultural agreement on Thursday. In addition to the protest, the FDF has been focusing specifically on the CDA on social media for some time, sometimes using threatening language.

Politicians believe that FDF leader Mark van den Oever or his supporters shared their telephone numbers online. Van den Oever denied it to NOS, but added that he wasn’t sad it happened.

CDA party chairman Pieter Heerma spoke of “bastard intimidation.” Party leader Wopke Hoekstra called the action reprehensible and unacceptable. “Publishing numbers to intimidate people goes beyond all bounds of decency. Stop doing it.”