Farmer–Citizen Movement

It is headquartered in Deventer, Overijssel. The current party leader is founder Caroline van der Plas, who has led it since its creation in 2019.

Farmer–Citizen Movement BoerBurgerBeweging
Abbreviation	BBB
Leader	Caroline van der Plas
Chairperson	Erik Stegink
Leader in the House of Representatives	Caroline van der Plas
Leader in the Senate	Ilona Lagas
Founder	Caroline van der Plas
Founded	1 October 2019; 4 years ago (2019-10-01)
Headquarters	Smeenkhof 12-d, Colmschate, Deventer
Youth wing	BBB Jong
Membership (2024)	13,426
Ideology	Agrarianism Conservatism Right-wing populism Soft Euroscepticism
Political position	Centre-right to right-wing
Colours	Grass green
Slogan	De stem van en voor het platteland ("The voice of and for the countryside")
Senate	16 / 75
House of Representatives	7 / 150
States-Provincial	137 / 572
Water board	118 / 518
European Parliament	0 / 29
Benelux Parliament	2 / 21
Website
boerburgerbeweging.nl
Politics of the Netherlands Political parties Elections

The Farmer–Citizen Movement was founded on 1 November 2019 by agricultural journalist Caroline van der Plas, together with Wim Groot Koerkamp and Henk Vermeer from agricultural marketing firm ReMarkAble, in response to the widespread farmers' protests that had taken place earlier that month. On 17 October 2020, Van der Plas was unanimously chosen as the party's lead candidate. It won one seat at the 2021 general election.

The BBB won the 2023 Dutch provincial elections, winning the popular vote and receiving the most seats in all twelve provinces. Given that the provincial councils elect the Dutch Senate, the party was predicted to win 17 seats in the 2023 Dutch Senate election, the most of any party; it won 16 seats in the election.

On 1 September 2023, former JA21 MPs Nicki Pouw-Verweij and Derk Jan Eppink and former PVV MP Lilian Helder joined the BBB parliamentary group in the run-up to 2023 parliamentary elections, increasing the BBB's number of seats from one to four. BBB also presented Mona Keijzer as candidate for Prime Minister. The party won seven seats with nearly half a million votes.

The BBB is a primarily agrarian and right-wing populist political party, that is generally placed on the centre-right, to right-wing of the political spectrum. The party has been variously described as conservative, centrist Christian-democratic, and partially centre-left. While not a far-right party itself, some academics and journalists have argued that it is supported by far-right elements. The BBB shifted further to the right after PVV and JA21 members joined the BBB faction in September 2023.

In European politics, the party is regarded as Eurosceptic. The BBB supports Dutch membership of the European Union (EU) for trading purposes, but wants to reduce the power of the EU "to a level of how the EEC was once intended" and opposes federalisation of the EU. The party argues that each country and region within the EU should be allowed to maintain its identity and culture without interference. It stated its intention to join the European People's Party but unlike other EPP parties, BBB did not join the Christian Group in the Benelux Parliament nor does BBB sit in the EPP group in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

On foreign policy, the party also supports Dutch membership of NATO and has called for providing Ukraine with F-16s.

On immigration and asylum, the party supports accommodating refugees fleeing wars but prefers they be helped close to the region of where they are from rather than encouraging migration to the Netherlands and intends for most refugees to return home once the conflict is over. It also calls for immigrants to already be employed and financially self-supporting before moving to the Netherlands, and they must learn Dutch, work and pay tax in the Netherlands for at least five years before becoming eligible for permanent residency. The party supports deporting illegal immigrants.

The party considers itself to support both food politics^{[failed verification]} and rural development.^{[third-party source needed]} It opposes the Rutte government's proposals to mitigate the human impact on the nitrogen cycle following the Nitrogen crisis in the Netherlands.

Party leader Caroline van der Plas has stated that the Party for the Animals and animal rights organization Wakker Dier are two of the BBB's biggest enemies, and that the party uses its social media presence to provide an alternative perspective.

In the 2021 Dutch general election, the party focused its campaign on issues important to rural and agrarian voters, including pledges for a "Ministry of the Countryside" located at least 100 kilometers from The Hague, and a removal of the ban on neonicotinoids. The party called for a Right to Agriculture Act, which would allow for farmers to have more say on agricultural expansion matters, in response to local opposition to pig and goat farms over public health, environmental and agricultural concerns.

House of Representatives

Election	Lead candidate	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Government
2021	Caroline van der Plas	104,319	1.00 (#16)	1 / 150	New	Opposition
2023		485,551	4.65 (#6)	7 / 150	6	TBA

Senate

Provincial councils

• Dutch farmers' protests
• Farmers' Party (Netherlands)
• List of agrarian parties
• List of political parties in the Netherlands

• Official website (in Dutch)
•   Media related to BoerBurgerBeweging at Wiki Commons