The Netherlands will tear up rules forcing homeowners to buy heat pumps as part of a war on Net Zero waged by Geert Wilders and the Dutch farmers’ party.
Six months after his shock landslide election victory, Mr Wilders this week struck an agreement to usher in a right-wing coalition government of four parties.
“We are writing history,” the hard-right veteran firebrand said, as he announced the programme for the new government.
The new coalition marks the first time a party focused on the interests of the agricultural sector has got into power since the mass farmers’ protests swept Europe earlier this year.
The coalition pact includes pledges to reverse green policies introduced under the previous government to hit EU climate targets, including compulsory buyouts of polluting farms. It also plans to end subsidies for electric cars in 2025 and rejects an EU demand that the Dutch reduce livestock numbers to cut pollution.
‘An attack on nature’
The Dutch branch of Greenpeace said the coalition agreement was “an attack on nature”. The deal has put the Freedom Party leader, who has been dubbed the “Dutch Trump”, and his coalition partners on a collision course with the European Commission.
The incoming government is demanding Brussels allows the Netherlands to emit more nitrogen per hectare than other EU countries beyond 2026, when a temporary exception for the Dutch expires. Dutch judges had ordered the halting of all new construction projects in the midst of a housing crisis until the Netherlands met its EU nitrogen targets.
The last government’s buyout plan to reduce nitrogen emissions, which are caused by agriculture, precipitated a string of tractor protests.