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Femke Wiersma surprises as new agriculture minister
Several names were bandied about, but Femke Wiersma will be the new agriculture minister on behalf of the BoerBurgerBeweging. The fact that Wiersma was chosen is a matter of praise, but also surprise.
Femke Marije Wiersma (39) is currently a member of the Provincial Executive of the province of Friesland. As a representative, her portfolio includes agriculture and nitrogen policy. She is also a director in the IPO (Interprovincial Consultation) and chairperson of the administrative advisory committee for Rural Areas. The expectation when she took office there was that she would change a lot in favor of agriculture. That has been a difficult process so far.
The politician already enjoys some fame among the general public because she took part in Farmer Wants a Woman in 2010. She divorced the dairy farmer she met through the program in 2019.
Wiersma has been a BBB member from the very beginning and has been involved with the party since November 2019. First as a board member and candidate Member of Parliament and from June 2021 to July 2023 as a parliamentary policy officer. On LinkedIn she writes about her motivation to join BBB: "I can give shape to my personal drive to contribute to society and, above all, to be able to do something for my fellow man. Injustice, in any form , activates me and I want to fight it. As an advocate through and through, I see that our target group is underrepresented in The Hague politics. Fair and long-term policy is a spearhead."
When the party first took part in the House of Representatives elections, it was actually the intention that Wiersma would enter the House, but she found that difficult to combine as a single mother of four children. Wiersma supported Van der Plas in the House, among other things, in the areas of agriculture and climate. During that period she was also busy setting up BBB's participation in the Provincial Council elections in Friesland.
Wiersma was a policy advisor to the Dutch Dairy Farmers' Union for four years, where he served as right-hand man to then chairman Harm Wiegersma, and was also a lobbyist for the Association for the Preservation of Farmers and the Environment (VBBM) for four years. She has also been a communications advisor for Team Agro NL for two years and a columnist for CRV for seven years. In an interview she said that she completed a HBO study in Social Work.
'Charming, but tough in the political debate'
Reactions to the new agriculture minister are mixed. One calls her a 'lightweight', the other a 'star'. Jaap Stalenburg, member of the Provincial Council for the PvdA, congratulates her on The choice of Wiersma is a surprise to many, although it is no secret that party leader Caroline van der Plas thinks highly of her. However, not everyone within the party is happy with it.
Five BBB ministers
It was previously announced that agriculturalist Jean Rummenie (71) will become the State Secretary for BBB on Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature (LVVN). He brings more agricultural baggage to his post. Rummenie, who was already retired, studied horticulture at the Agricultural College in Wageningen and says he has 'worked all his life for the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality' and has '36 years of international experience, multilateral and bilateral'. Since 1989, he has been an agricultural councilor in many different countries, including Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Argentina and Hungary, and the new State Secretary was policy coordinator at the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality twice. About what concerns him, he says on the BBB website: "Seeing things in perspective, appreciation for the best farmers in the world, close to ordinary people, the golden rule... Don't forget: we are there for each other!"
BBB also provides the minister of the new Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning, Mona Keijzer, and the State Secretaries of Defense (Gijs Tuinman) and Herstel Groningen, which will fall under the Ministry of the Interior (Eddie van Marum).
The Minister of Nature and Nitrogen created by the previous cabinet (the post held by VVD member Christianne van der Wal) will disappear, but there will be a new Ministry of Climate and Green Growth, for which VVD provides the minister: MP Sophie Hermans . The Ministry of Asylum and Migration (PVV MP Gidi Markuszower) is also new. It is still unknown how the three new ministries should take shape.
Former director of the interest group Koninklijke Horeca Nederland, Dirk Beljaarts, will represent the PVV in the post of Economic Affairs, which is also important for agriculture. The Minister of Foreign Trade is also a PVV member: business economist Reinette Klever.
Icing on the cake
Party leader and faction chairman Caroline van der Plas, who, as agreed, will remain in the House of Representatives like the other party leaders, is extremely happy and proud, she said in a press release. "In just three years, we have grown from a one-person faction in the House of Representatives to a party that is part of the cabinet, has seven seats in the House of Representatives, is the largest in the Senate and in the provinces, which has a seat in all boards of the Water Boards and has been represented with two seats in the European Parliament since Sunday 9 June. As the icing on the cake, we now also supply five ministers to this new cabinet."
According to Van der Plas, BBB shows that it is not afraid to take responsibility and does 'justice to the election results of November 22, with which the Netherlands clearly opted for a new wind and a centre-right course'.
Linda van Eekeres
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