The Hague: Nour Eddine Amrani

Mona Kaiser has withdrawn from the Dutch Farmers' Party (BBB) ​​after not being chosen to lead the party following Caroline van der Plass's resignation and the appointment of Vermeer as the party's spokesperson in the Dutch parliament.

As I wrote here in "Europe and the Arabs" a few days ago, my prediction has come true: the Farmers' Party has imploded, with Mona Kaiser announcing her departure and the formation of a new party. This follows the National Council's decision to abandon her, despite her party securing second place in the recent parliamentary elections and her position as a minister and deputy prime minister.

Caroline van der Plass declared Vermeer the most qualified to lead the party, which won only four seats. This represents a series of blows from farmers who had placed their hopes on the party to defend their national and European interests. However, the recent elections have shaken the foundations of the party, which has fractured from within due to internal power struggles. This is the second time Mona Kaiser has announced her departure. The first instance occurred when the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party dissolved in August 2023 due to misleading statements related to the coronavirus pandemic. She then joined the newly formed Farmers' Party, which had hoped to have Kaiser lead the party alongside Caroline van der Plass to win the elections and secure the premiership. However, things didn't go as planned. Less than three years later, Kaiser, who had left the CDA, broke away from the Farmers' Party and announced the formation of a new party.

Kaiser feels she has been sidelined following the appointment of Henk Vermeer last week to succeed Caroline van der Plass. Despite her departure, she will continue her work as an independent member of parliament.

Mona Kaiser, a member of parliament and Deputy Prime Minister until Monday, announced her withdrawal from the BBB party. She made this announcement in an interview with the newspaper De Telegraaf, published on Monday. She will continue her work as an independent member of parliament. According to Mona, Kaiser repeatedly asked when she would be given the party leadership. "But I never received an answer. I also noticed that the relationship with Henk Vermeer was beginning to change." As of this writing, the BBB has not yet commented on her resignation.

Three prominent party leaders wrote a letter this week expressing their "deep concern" about the party leadership's decision. The letter was signed by then-Minister Geis Tauenman, Senator Robert van Gästern, and Claudia van Zanten, who was fifth on the party list for the House of Representatives elections last October.

The three wrote, "This is not about Henk Vermeer himself, but about Mona, who possesses considerable administrative and political experience and represents a tremendous force." In October, Kaiser received over 100,000 votes in the House of Representatives elections, nearly the same number as Caroline van der Plass. There had been friction between Kaiser and the party leadership for some time. She believed, as she put it, that the party needed to broaden its political scope, rather than focusing primarily on defending agricultural interests. Kaiser had moved from the CDA to the BBB in 2023, after 32 years of membership. At that time, the party presented her as a "candidate for prime minister" in the run-up to the election, even though polls did not indicate that the BBB was a strong contender to become the largest party. With Kaiser's departure, the number of parliamentary groups in the House of Representatives will increase to seventeen. To clarify for the public, Mona Kaiser harbors a particular hatred and animosity towards Islam and Muslims in the Netherlands, considering their presence an obstacle to the progress of what she calls Dutch culture. She claims that their intellectual backwardness is linked to their culture, which she believes does not allow for acceptance of others. Her inflammatory statements have sparked concern and condemnation from numerous civil and human rights organizations, particularly since she assumed the portfolio of Immigration and Asylum, inheriting it from the far-right politician Maryjolaine Veer. Veer left the government after receiving the green light from their leader, Geert Wilders, who departed, leaving the Netherlands in a crippling political crisis that led to the government's resignation and early parliamentary elections. Mona, of course, has been influenced by the Freedom Party, which secured over thirty seats in the penultimate elections. She is attempting to exploit the issues of immigration and Islam to gain more votes and fill the void left by Geert Wilders in the last elections. She is banking on winning the trust and sympathy of the Dutch people, who have lost patience with politicians and their elected representatives.

The published photo is of the Dutch leader Mona Kaiser and was published by the Dutch daily newspaper Volkskrant.