The king’s commissioner for Groningen, René Paas, has reported Farmers’ Defence Force to police after the militant protest group threatened to declare “war” over the province’s decision to force a family to sell their 31-hectare farm.

FDF spokesman Mark van den Oever contacted the former leader of farmers’ party BBB, Caroline van der Plas, with an ultimatum after BBB members in Groningen voted for the compulsory purchase of the site in Lucaswolde.

“We are calling for this issue to be resolved within 24 hours, otherwise it’s war,” Van den Oever said.

Paas accused Van den Oever of using “intimidating” language against elected politicians and said he would be filing a police complaint against FDF unless the words were retracted.

“It is essential that the representatives of the people are able to vote freely,” Paas told RTV Noord. “Threatening war goes beyond the boundaries of what is acceptable.”

The provincial assembly voted for compulsory purchase after officials were unable to come to an agreement with the Van der Veen family, which owns the site. It is the last piece of land the province needs to develop a new water storage facility.

BBB “betrayal”

FDF accused the BBB of betraying farmers after six of its 12 councillors voted for the compulsory purchase, along with its partners in the ruling coalition PvdA, GroenLinks and VVD.

“What the BBB has done to this family and all farmers in the Netherlands by voting for this expropriation is a clear turning point. We will not forget,” FDF said in a statement.

Van den Oever brushed off the suggestion that his words were intended to intimidate assembly members. “Obviously I meant war in the figurative sense, not literally,” he said.

FDF was at the forefront of the farmers’ protests that began in 2019 after the government announced plans to cut nitrogen compound emissions drastically.

Some farmers were told they would have to give up or downsize following a Council of State ruling that the Netherlands had to comply with European limits designed to protect vulnerable conservation areas.

Some of the protests turned violent: hay bales and tractor tyres were set on fire, police cars were attacked and the door of Groningen’s provincial assembly house was rammed by a tractor.

Van den Oever was criticised for a video message in which he vowed to make the then agriculture minister Piet Adema “the focus of our attention” while standing in front of a stack of burning pallets.