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Caroline van der Plas: ‘Doet pijn dat ik word neergezet als dom’

Channel: De Telegraaf Published: 2026-01-03 08:30
De Telegraaf

Interview with Caroline van der Plas about BBB’s difficult 2025, the collapse of the Schoof cabinet, and her view that BBB still has a role in opposition. She defends agriculture minister Femke Wiersma, argues BBB’s core commitments on farmers and the countryside remain intact, and spends much of the conversation pushing back against media frames such as 'domrechts' and 'populistisch'.

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Detailed summary

This is a long-form interview with Caroline van der Plas, leader of BBB, and the main thesis is political rather than market-related: she portrays 2025 as an extremely difficult but survivable year for her party, says BBB is still standing after coalition turbulence, and argues the party should continue fighting for farmers, the countryside, and a more humane style of politics. She repeatedly frames the cabinet collapse, hostile media treatment, and coalition compromise as painful but normal parts of governing. Her tone is defensive but confident: BBB may have fallen back to four seats, but she says that does not mean the party’s work or relevance is over. A large part of the interview is about the June 3, 2025 collapse of the coalition when Geert Wilders left the government. …

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Main takeaways

  1. Van der Plas sees 2025 as BBB’s toughest year yet, but not a reason to retreat.
  2. She frames the party’s seat loss as a cost of governing, not proof that BBB failed.
  3. Her strongest substantive defense is of agriculture minister Femke Wiersma and the farmer agenda.
  4. She argues the real bottleneck is political and legal resistance, not lack of effort.
  5. She is highly sensitive to personal and family attacks, and sees that as the line she won’t cross.
  6. She thinks Dutch politics and media are dominated by outrage, frames, and quick judgments.
  7. She still presents herself as committed to staying on until she can hand the party over properly.

Market read by horizon

Short term

Immediate setup is political rather than market-based: BBB is in damage-control mode after coalition collapse and will try to frame itself as still relevant from opposition. Short term, the main risk is that the incoming cabinet freezes or reverses farmer policy and leaves BBB with little to show.

  • BBB is heading into opposition after the collapse of the cabinet and the election setback, so immediate attention is on how the party repositions itself.
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  • Her nearest tactical priority is defending the existing agriculture policy line and preventing a wholesale rollback by the incoming political setup.
  • The Council of State criticism of Wiersma’s nitrogen proposal and the pending end-of-cabinet window are the key short-run risks.
Mid term

Over the next few months, BBB’s credibility will hinge on whether any of its agriculture agenda survives in the next coalition and whether Wiersma-style target steering remains part of the policy mix. If not, the party may keep its identity but lose practical leverage; if yes, it can argue the ideas were larger than its seat count.

  • Over the next few months, BBB’s recovery depends on whether it can show concrete wins for farmers and the countryside even from opposition.
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  • A base-case path in her telling is that parts of the current agriculture and nitrogen agenda remain alive because the next coalition inherits them.
  • Her key validation signal would be whether target-steering / emission-reduction logic survives into policy and whether farmer sentiment stays supportive of Wiersma’s direction.
Long term

The structural message is that insurgent agrarian-populist parties can enter government, but coalition compromise and media framing may limit their durability. BBB’s long-term test is whether it becomes a stable countryside party with governing competence or remains a protest vehicle vulnerable to political churn.

  • Structurally, Van der Plas is arguing that BBB’s long-run identity is a farmer-and-platteland party that can survive electoral setbacks if it keeps a clear purpose.
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  • She believes coalition participation is a durable test for populist or insurgent parties: governing forces compromise, but also proves seriousness.
  • Her broader regime view is that Dutch politics overrewards outrage and underrewards boring, practical policy work.
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Key claims (7)

12:15
BULLISH Dutch agricultural policy

Femke Wiersma is the hardest-fighting minister for farmers in recent years and receives a 7.3 rating from farmers in a New Oogst survey, higher than any other minister.

Speaker asserts Wiersma is uniquely pro-farmer, citing a 7.3 approval rating from the LTO farmers' magazine survey.

21:55
BEARISH Agricultural environmental policy

Allowing artificial fertilizer where manure is banned is worse for water quality and increases CO2 emissions, making current policy contradictory and harmful.

The speaker points out that the so-called 'easing' of norms still bans manure near waterways but allows artificial fertilizer, which he argues is actually more damaging to water quality and has higher CO2 emissions from gas-based production.

15:10
BULLISH Dutch nitrogen/agriculture policy

Spreading animal manure results in better water quality than using artificial fertilizer, based on research by Herman de Boer of Wageningen University.

Speaker cites a Wageningen University study claiming that farms allowed to spread more animal manure had better water quality than farms using more artificial fertilizer.

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Assets discussed (8)

BBB
MIXED other

Political party discussed as the subject of the interview; described as having fallen back to four seats but still stable and rebuilding.

Femke Wiersma
BULLISH other

Van der Plas defends the agriculture minister and frames her as working hard for farmers despite obstruction.

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Speakers

GUEST Caroline van der Plas INTERVIEWER Interviewer (De Telegraaf)

Interview (33 Q&A)

0:55
jaaroverzicht intensiteit

Hoe zou jij het jaar 2025 qua intensiteit op werkgebied willen duiden?

Van der Plas zegt dat 2025 het meest heftige jaar was van alle jaren sinds ze in de Kamer zit, met name door de val van de coalitie op 3 juni 2025 toen Geert Wilders uit de coalitie stapte, wat leidde tot nieuwe verkiezingen — de zesde in vier jaar tijd.

1:20
heftigste moment

Wat was het heftigste moment van 2025?

Het meest heftige moment was 3 juni 2025, toen Geert Wilders besloot uit de coalitie te stappen. Dat vond ze erg pittig omdat je dan breekt met elkaar, nieuwe bewindspersonen moesten worden gezocht, en het vooruitzicht van nieuwe verkiezingen — de zesde in vier jaar tijd — was zwaar.

2:20
volhouden politiek

Is dat vol te houden, al die campagnes en zware jaren?

Ze zegt dat je het moet volhouden omdat je met een bepaald idee naar de Tweede Kamer bent gegaan, en dat je goede mensen om je heen moet hebben.

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Where this transcript pushes against consensus

  • She treats the slogan BBB levert as still valid in substance, but the interview itself shows repeated examples where delivery was blocked or incomplete.
  • Her defense of manure policy versus artificial fertilizer is argued forcefully, but the transcript gives little independent evidence beyond her cited research and anecdote.
  • She attributes BBB’s seat loss mainly to coalition participation, which may be partly true, but she downplays the possibility of voter dissatisfaction with the party’s own performance.
  • Her criticism of media activism is strongly stated, but she offers limited concrete proof beyond wording choices and editorial framing.
  • She says the party is not weakened by the cabinet collapse, yet the move to four seats clearly reduced BBB’s leverage.
  • Her claim that she is not affected in a deeper way by pressure is softened elsewhere by admissions that personal attacks and family involvement do hit hard.

Topics

BBBCaroline van der PlasFemke Wiersmanitrogen policyDutch coalition politicsfarmersmedia biasHamas/NOS coveragefamily and resilienceopposition strategy

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