Reporters outside the FvD headquarters in
Amsterdam. Photo: DutchNews.nl
FvD collapse continues, Baudet demands name and
denies Soros comments
Politics
November 26, 2020
The
collapse of far-right party Forum voor Democratie continued into Thursday, with
founder Thierry Baudet now demanding the party’s money, social media platforms
and names be divided between the two opposing groups. Baudet told broadcaster
NOS that everyone who supported his line should stay within Forum and the
dissidents – now including most of the candidates on the party’s list for the
March general election as well as senators and other local officials – should
start something new. More dissidents have emerged overnight since the
publication of a letter by senator Nicki Pouw-Verweij, who was number three on
the general election list. She wrote an account of a dinner on Friday involving
seven prospective MPs, in which Baudet expressed his support for conspiracy
theories and said nearly everyone he knew was an anti-semite. According to Pouw-Verweij’s
letter, Baudet said that coronavirus had been introduced by George Soros to
‘steal our freedom’ and coronavirus would complete what ‘Hilary Clinton and the
paedophiles failed to do’. Both ideas stem from Qanon conspiracy theories in
the US. Baudet told television show WNL on Thursday that he ‘did not recognise
himself at all’ in Pouw-Verweij’s accusations. But Joost Eerdmans and Eva
Vlaardingerbroek, numbers four and five on the list respectively, have both
supported Pouw-Verweij’s interpretation of the dinner. Youth wing The row burst
into the open on Saturday when the Parool newspaper published screenshots of
racist and anti-Semitic messages that circulated in app groups run by the
party’s youth wing, JFVD. The party expelled three members who were responsible
for sending some of the messages in May, but last week it emerged that five
whistleblowers who raised the issue had also been thrown out. Baudet came under
fire for protecting the head of the youth wing, Freek Jansen, and refusing to
remove him from the slate of candidates for next year’s election. Dutch media
reported sources saying Baudet had threatened to resign if Jansen was forced
out.
Read more
at DutchNews.nl:
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário