Caroline van der Plas

Carolina Ann Maria "Caroline" van der Plas (born 6 June 1967) is a Dutch journalist and politician. She is party leader of FarmerCitizenMovement ("BoerBurgerBeweging" - shortened BBB), a party focused on the interests of the rural environment in general and of the farmers in particular.
She started her career in journalism at the Deventer Dagblad and specialised in agricultural topics. From 2019 to 2020, she was chief editor of Pig Business magazine and pigbusiness.nl website.
She was co-founder of the FarmerCitizenMovement in 2019 and list puller in the 2021 Dutch general election. Van der Plas was the only one of her party who was elected, so she has been both parliamentary group leader and an MP since March 2021.
Van der Plas was born Cuijk and lives in Deventer. She is a widow (her husband passed away in 2019) with two sons. Her father was a well-known Deventer sports journalist and her (from Ireland originating) mother a CDA alderwoman in the same Overijssel city. She herself was also a member of the CDA party. In 2018, she gave up membership because of the lack of support for the farmer's interests in her opinion.