5 things to know about Dutch far right’s new figurehead
Move over, Geert Wilders. Thierry Baudet is the fresh face
of Dutch populism.
By ELINE
SCHAART 3/25/19, 4:00 AM CET
The populist Forum for Democracy last week stunned the Dutch
political establishment.
By winning the most votes in provincial elections, the
upstart party — founded in 2016 — will have the most seats in the upper house
of parliament, ahead of Prime Minister Mark Rutte's liberal VVD. It also makes
Forum for Democracy (FvD) leader Thierry Baudet more powerful, if less
high-profile, than the long-standing face (and hair) of Dutch populism, Geert
Wilders.
A proponent of Dutch-first cultural, social and economic
policies, Baudet has called for less immigration, improved relations with
Russia, and for the Netherlands to leave the EU — although he has also said he
will see how Brexit plays out first.
“I am ideologically against the EU, against the internal
market, against the open borders, against the euro, against the whole
thing," he told de Volkskrant last month.
With the FvD on course to do well in the European Parliament
election (POLITICO's polling has it winning 4 seats), we could be seeing a lot
more of the 36-year-old Baudet and his allies in the near future.
Here are five things to know about Baudet.
1. Mr. Referendum
The first time many Dutch people heard about Baudet was
through his involvement in the 2016 referendum on a deal to strengthen trade ties
between the EU and Ukraine.
Inspired by the U.K.'s vote to leave the EU, FvD — then a
newly established think tank — launched a petition against the so-called
association agreement with Kiev. It was the first referendum to take place
under a Dutch law that obliges the government to call a public vote on any
petition that gets the support of 300,000 people.
The organizers said their main objective was to thwart
"undemocratic decision-making" in Brussels. Dutch voters clearly
agreed, as they opposed the deal by a margin of almost two to one.
FvD's petition against the so-called association agreement
with Kiev put it on the map | Robin van Lonkhuijsen/AFP via Getty Images
Although the referendum was non-binding, it was an
embarrassment to Rutte, who had to go back to Brussels for reassurances that
the agreement would not lead to automatic EU membership for Ukraine and would
not commit member countries to financially support the country.
FvD was now up and running. It became a political party and
in the 2017 general election it won two seats.
2. An intellectual Geert Wilders
Baudet has transformed the image of right-wing populism in
the Netherlands, which has been dominated for a decade by Geert Wilders and his
Freedom Party.
In terms of policy, the two parties are close — they are anti-immigration
and Euroskeptic — although the FvD is less overtly anti-Islam.
Their styles, however, couldn’t be more different. The
Latin-quoting and philosophy-reading Baudet is a member of the very
"elite" that Wilders made his reputation railing against.
Baudet, who studied law and political science and was a
columnist for the NRC Handelsblad, targets educated voters and says he wants to
get rid of “the infiltration” of the left in the public service, media and
education.
His strategy seems to have worked. Last week's provincial
election results don't reflect a shift to the right in the Netherlands, rather
a reshuffling of the parties that represent the right. Wilders' Freedom Party
lost four of its nine Senate seats, with many of its voters switching to the
FvD.
3. Road to success
The FvD may have won big in provincial elections but the
party had little to say on local issues. Instead, the party's campaign focused
almost exclusively on three national themes: climate, migration and purchasing
power.
During the campaign, Baudet talked about "climate
change hysteria" and questioned the "exorbitant" costs of the
climate action plan Rutte's coalition has presented.
Last year, Baudet said on Twitter that "An Inconvenient
Truth," Al Gore's movie about climate change, "doesn't really make
any sense at all," claiming there has been "no increase in extreme
weather conditions."
Thanks to a sophisticated social media operation and regular
appearances on popular TV talks shows, Baudet and his party have managed to
reach a large audience.
Two days before the election, the campaign shifted focus to
migration after a Turkish-born man was arrested following a shooting in Utrecht
in which three people were killed. Baudet was swift in his response, blaming
the government's migration policy for the attack just hours after the shooting.
At the time of his remarks, all other parties had suspended campaigning in
memory of those who lost their lives.
Baudet's campaign focused almost exclusively on three
national themes: climate, migration and purchasing power | Robin van
Lonkhuijsen/EPA
“We are being destroyed by the people who are supposed to be
protecting us,” Baudet told supporters after his election win. “Successive
Rutte governments have left our borders wide open, letting in hundreds of
thousands of people with cultures completely different to ours.”
4. Male dominance
Sixty-four percent of voters who backed the FvD in the provincial
election were male, according to a survey by research center Ipsos. That's
maybe not surprising when you consider how Baudet thinks about the other 36
percent.
In an interview in 2017, Baudet said "women generally
excel less in a lot of occupations and have fewer ambitions," adding that
they are "often also more interested in just more family-like
things." Three years earlier, he wrote in an op-ed that women "do not
want you to respect their no, to respect their resistance. The reality is that
women want to be overwhelmed, dominated, yes; want to be overpowered."
5. European strategy
Forum for Democracy is projected to win 12 percent of Dutch
votes in the European Parliament election. Its lead candidate is Derk Jan
Eppink, author of a damning book about his time working for the European
Commission.
The FvD has said that it intends to join the European
Conservatives and Reformists group (ECR) in the European Parliament. However,
some members of the ECR are not happy about that, including the Dutch Christian
Union (CU), already a member of the group.
"Both the CU and ECR take a critical approach to
Europe, but our main objective is to reform the EU from within. Forum wants a
Nexit, so it does not want to reform, it wants to break off," the CU said
in statement. The CU also said it opposes the party's stance on migration and
its pro-Russia attitude.
The FvD has, however, rowed back on its calls for a Dutch
exit from the EU. Its 2017 electoral program backed "Nexit" but the
party website now says that the "FvD is in favor of a referendum on
membership of the EU."
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