A senator for the farmers’ party BBB has defected to the progressive liberal group D66 in protest over the coalition’s stance on Gaza.
Robert Croll, a former judge and member of the Red Cross’s management board in the Netherlands, said the BBB’s policy on Gaza was indefensible and he wanted to see more focus on international law.
He is the second senator to quit the party in a week, after Eric Kemperman announced he would be sitting as an independent member.
Croll’s departure leaves the BBB with 14 members in the upper house, the same number as the left-wing alliance of GroenLinks and PvdA, while D66 now has six.
It also means the coalition parties have a total of 28 seats in the senators, 10 short of a majority, and can no longer be sure of passing legislation even with the support of the right-wing JA21 and centre-right CDA.
BBB leader Caroline van der Plas said she was disappointed in Croll’s decision to switch to a party that was the focus of farmers’ anger during the previous government’s term.
“The fact that D66, a party that has made life difficult for farmers and is committed to halving the cattle herd, is now strengthened by our seat, is something we find incomprehensible and undesirable,” she told RTL Nieuws.
Senate group leader Ilona Lagas called on Croll to hand his seat back to the BBB. “A switch to a party with a completely different ideological position should logically be combined with returning the seat. His personal decision to change his political stance is his own choice, not the voters’.”
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