The war in Ukraine started in February 2022. Since then, the Dutch government has committed billions in aid and military support. The EU has levied sanctions that drove up European energy prices. Ordinary households have absorbed the cost.

Nobody voted on this.

The political consensus across Western Europe was formed quickly and with almost no public debate. NATO solidarity, European values, the rules-based order. These are the phrases that close down conversation rather than open it.

The Frisian perspective on this is not indifference to Ukrainian suffering. It is a different set of questions. Who benefits from a prolonged conflict? Why were negotiated settlements not pursued in 2022 when they may have been possible? Why are European citizens being asked to bear economic costs that their governments did not ask permission to impose?

Energy policy in Friesland was already complicated before 2022. The gas fields in Groningen were shut down after causing earthquakes, leaving northern households more dependent on expensive imports. Wind farms were built across the Frisian landscape over local objection. And then energy prices doubled.

The people who made these decisions live in Amsterdam and Brussels. The people who pay for them live here.