Mandatory heat pumps abolished as farmers’ party takes net zero fight into heart of Dutch government

Dutch PVV far-right leader Geert Wilders - BART MAAT/AFP

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.

Dutch farmers stage a protest in The Hague on July 7, 2021. They were campaigning against the government's nitrogen policy, which wanted to significantly reduce nitrogen emissions from agriculture in the coming years - ROBIN VAN LONKHUIJSEN/AFP

Compulsory farm buyouts will now be replaced with a voluntary scheme, which was one of the Dutch Farmer-Citizen Movement’s (BBB) conditions for entering government with Mr Wilders.

The BBB triumphed in regional elections after a vote dominated by the tractors’ protests that inspired similar populist uprisings against EU green rules across Europe. In the general election held after the last government collapsed, the BBB, which was formed in 2019, won seven seats, a sevenfold increase since the previous elections in 2021.

They were the first European farmers’ party to get elected into parliament since the EU set their Net Zero objective. It won 4.6 per cent of the vote, while Mr Wilders won 23.5 per cent (equivalent to 37 seats) in a surprise landslide for the veteran firebrand.

The BBB also demanded the end of a law that would require homeowners to switch to a hybrid heat pump when replacing their central heating boiler from 2026. The act, introduced shortly after the EU announced its objective to install at least 10 million additional heat pumps by 2027 to hit its 2050 Net Zero goal, would have made them standard in Dutch homes.

Switching to heat pumps would have driven down Dutch household use of natural gas for heating, which is the largest source of its gas consumption, equivalent to about 30 per cent in total.

BBB leader Caroline van der Plas said she was “mega-proud” of her party, which boasted a “large part” of its manifesto was reflected in the pact. “Thanks to BBB’s efforts,” the party boasted, “the mandatory heat pump will be abolished.”

Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB) party leader Caroline van der Plas speaks during the presentation of the main lines agreement for a new cabinet - KOEN VAN WEEL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

The 26-page coalition agreement also states that the Netherlands must no longer pursue “a more ambitious environment policy” than the rest of Europe. “We’ll adhere to the existing agreements; only if we do not achieve the goals do we create alternative policies,” it said in a document called “Hope, Courage and Pride”.

The agreement also includes a crackdown on asylum and a demand for an opt-out on EU migration policy. Mr Wilders has hailed it as the Netherlands’ “strictest ever” asylum policy. Coalition talks between the Freedom Party (PVV), the BBB, the pro-business VVD, and the “radical centrist” New Social Contract were difficult and lasted 176 days.

Mr Wilders, who is infamous for his anti-Islam rhetoric, was forced to ditch his campaign pledge for a referendum on EU membership and his dreams of being Prime Minister to get the deal. Ronald Plasterk, a former Labour minister, appears to be the main contender to be Prime Minister.

The VVD, which led the previous government and is part of the European Parliament group Renew dominated by Emmanuel Macron’s party, could face repercussions for going into government with the PVV. Leader of Renew, Valérie Hayer, said, “The PVV is the opposite of the values we defend: the rule of law, the economy, the climate, and of course Europe.”

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