Politics and Elections in the Netherlands: BBB victory

[jeron]

Was D66 as a whole previously anti-nuclear energy or was this just Jetten's position?

What is written above is not entirely correct.
Jetten's position was much more nuanced than just being against nuclear energy, as is D66's position. To claim Jetten will be responsible for 'building two nuclear power plants' is also a stretch. The coalition agreed to take the 'necessary steps to build two nuclear plants', which includes facilitating nuclear initiatives and looking into a financial contribution (subsidy) from the government. Of course everything hinges on the last and there is bound to be discussion over it. That doesn't mean that there won't be nuclear plants but it is a long way still.

Essentially the new policy should come as no surprise. There are two parties in government which want nuclear energy and two which don't take a strong position either way. Of course things would have been different had Groenlinks and PvdA been in government.

[jeron]

Was D66 as a whole previously anti-nuclear energy or was this just Jetten's position?

They weren’t officially “opposed” (like GL) but in practice they were (kept pushing against nuclear and kept voting against it), because they argued it would be too expensive. I’ve never been quite sure whether that argument was completely sincere or whether they were actually opposed in principle but didn’t feel like even having that debate - I’m guessing the latter, or at least a bit of both. Jetten’s position was the same as his party’s.

What probably helped in D66 making concessions on this issue is public opinion being quite strongly in favor of nuclear energy and D66 competitors Volt being outspokenly pro-nuclear, which seems to be a popular position especially among younger voters. CU had a similar position to D66 but was probably more easily convinced (I guess because their “it’s too expensive” stance was their actual stance and the new government is spending like crazy anyway).

This is again not correct. GL does clearly oppose nuclear energy as do most of its supporters. D66 wrote that it prefers other kinds of energy and that nuclear energy comes with disadvantages that would have to be taken away (https://d66.nl/kernenergie/) CU essentially takes the same position, but the argument is not money, but nuclear waste. See: https://www.christenunie.nl/standpunt/kerncentrales

[jeron]

If you had to describe Volt's political position, how would you describe it aside from being pro-european federalism?

It is a very similar party to D66 but there are couple of things worth highlighting I feel (and DavidB can correct me). For one, Volt is very open about wanting to lead a sort of political revolution and a generational transition of power. They play on the elite/ordinary people cleavage to an extent despite their high educated voter base, and they definitely play on the generational cleavage more than D66.

D66 is more of a managerialist/conservative reformist kind of party that believes in maintaining cadre interests and status quo politics and has pretty much given up on its wacky ideas to renew Dutch politics such as majoritarian system or elected mayors (or referenda, which really damaged their image as a "let's renew dutch politics and make it closer to citizens").

In simple terms, Volt is first and foremost a youth party, and then one that seeks to overhaul the political system (inc. the Eurofederalism thing). D66 is a party that goes across generations and targets different cadres and sectors specifically, and does not seek an overhaul anymore.

It's pretty clear though that Volt mainly benefit from disgruntled D66 voters.

In terms of voter base, the generational divide between Volt and D66 is not as large as you describe because:
a) Volt attracted voters from all age groups, and
B) D66 also disproportionally gets it votes from younger voters and overperforms in university towns.

Relatively speaking Volt did do better among college and university students which may be partly due to D66 previously supporting the abolishment of student grants and the introduction of student loans. In that sense Volt is more of a student party than a youth party.

https://maurice.nl/peilingen/2021/04/tk2021-naar-demografische-en-andere-kenmerken/

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[jeron]

Are there any embarrassed retrospectives on that Ukrainian referendum a few years back?

Not really, everybody mainly sticks to their own opinion. Baudet has gone completely mad and now spews Russian propaganda in parliament and claims Putin is a wonderful guy. He claims the war is a corroboration of his point of view: the EU should not have signed an Association agreement with Ukraine as it was a threat to Russia and without it there would have been no war.

[jeron]

The Netherlands is not the only country in Europe that has a large agricultural sector and its also not the only country that is trying to meet climate change targets. Why is this BBB revolt by farmers such a uniquely Dutch phenomenon? Why do we not see similar parties popping up in Germany or Denmark or Belgium. I know those other countries have rightwing populist parties - but they tend to be focused on xenophobia and not fight against nitrogen reduction.

The nature and scale of these nitrogen cuts, and the way they were handled (imposed by a court) is  relatively unique to. The Netherlands.

The cuts were not imposed by the court. The previous system was ruled unlawful by a court. That system was criticized when it was implemented because it was deemed to be unlawful by lawyers.