| Farmers taking to the streets are making headlines all over Europe, and this is not their first season of discontent. Since autumn 2019, except for a break during the pandemic, farmers have been rallying for different reasons almost yearly. According to the maths done by the think tank Farm Europe, since the farm discontent broke out in the Netherlands more than a year ago, large-scale protests have taken place in more than 15 member states. Most of them were invisible beyond the sector and at the EU level. But this time, in the year of probably the most important European election in decades, it’s different. Let’s do some more math. In the EU, there are nine million farms, some 90% of which are family farms. A conservative estimate of three voters per family translates into 27-30 million potential voters, a considerable electoral pool. And that’s why farmer discontent is making headlines. The first to understand this potential was the European People’s Party. Since the victory of the rural party BBB in the Dutch local elections in March 2023, the EPP has tried hard to brand itself as “the farmers’ party”. But it’s not an isolated case. | 