I think the Dutch farmers started this round of protests. The EU has mandated a reduction in nitrogen in the water near sensitive areas. The sensitive areas seem to be wildlife areas/parks. They also want to require a permit if one is withing 25 km of these areas. Ammonia is also a concern but nitrogen is what I always read about.
To reduce the nitrogen in the water, the government wants to buy out 3000 farms. It sounds like if one does not volunteer to sell, the farms will be closed via forced sales.
As usual, the reports don't really dig into the problem but one of the many articles I have read, did have a passing mention that much of the nitrogen in the water is not from farms. My guess is that much of the nitrogen is from non farm fertilizer and mostly from waste water treatment. Waste water would be an interesting source of pollution to discus,s not only to show how the Dutch population is part of the problem, but to ask how much pollution is from other countries flowing down the rivers.
The farm protests have tied into other big issues like EU mandates/control and immigration. A farm party came out of nowhere in the elections that were a year ago. The farm, and other parties, disrupted the status quo. The Dutch political system requires the political parties to form a ruling coalition if one party does not have a majority. Getting a coalition together takes time, especially when there are more parties needed to form a government. They are still working on forming a government.
I don't like protests that shutdown roads since it impacts people too much. Taking the protest to the government buildings is fine but shutting down transportation is rally bad. People wanting more government action on environmental issues have been stopping transportation and that is just wrong.
We were in the NL last year and the Dutch were very friendly but Dutch Direct sometimes. The Dutch came be viewed as rude due to their directness but I think this is a function of the Dutch language. The directness issue really only happened a few times and the people were so friendly with good English speaking skills which makes it easy to visit the country. Many signs are in English as well.
One business owner I talked with had a Ford F150. He mentioned that he did not know what he would do when he had to replace the truck since he might have to buy an electric powered truck. Standing around waiting to take a tour I had a conversation with an older Dutch couple. The husband started talking about Dutch political issues and he talked about the farms a bit but mostly about how people where coming to the NL to live, taking government money, and not fitting in.
The Dutch have this "behavior" of keeping the window blinds open. Apparently, keeping the blinds closed mean you area hiding something. Given the density of housing, looking INTO someones window is easy to do, so you would think closing the blinds would be the thing to do. Like other European countries, the side walk can be narrow in front of housing, and just walking by one can easily see into people's home. The Dutch expectation is that one leaves the blinds open to let in light and one does not look into someone's home. Seems like the right thing to do. I did quite a bit of walking around and the blinds stayed opened when I was out and about.
So back to the couple I was talking too and not fitting in to Dutch society. He was talking about new arrivals, apparently it is only people from some countries who walk around looking into peoples homes. He really was not happy about this happening, which to me on the surface, seems to be a little thing, just close the blinds, but it really was an issue for him and his friends which makes sense given the culture.
My impression was that he voted for the farmers party or one of the other anti EU parties that have sprung up.
Reading a variety of European websites and watching YouTube videos there is quite a bit of political upset in Europe and much of it because of EU policies.
