US ambassador under fire for hosting Dutch
far-right bash
Embassy and MP Thierry Baudet deny claims that event
was a fundraiser.
By ELINE
SCHAART 9/22/20, 6:31 PM CET Updated 9/23/20, 2:20 PM CET
The U.S.
ambassador to the Netherlands has been accused of interfering in national
politics after hosting an event for the far-right Forum for Democracy party.
The event,
held at the American Embassy in Wassenaar on September 10, featured between 30
and 40 "party officials and wealthy entrepreneurs," according to
Dutch magazine De Groene Amsterdammer. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra spoke at the
event. Hoekstra, who was born in the Netherlands but raised in Michigan, was
appointed by Donald Trump in 2017.
Other
political parties, including Prime Minister Mark Rutte's VVD, have raised
questions about the event and whether it should have been allowed. "Of
course this should not have happened," MP Bram van Ojik from the Greens
told broadcaster NOS. "This is interference in our elections."
A lawmaker
from the social-liberal D66 party said the event may have even violated the
Vienna Convention, which states foreign diplomats should not interfere in a
host nation's politics. "Text and explanation are needed here,"
Sjoerd Sjoerdsma said.
Dutch Trade
Minister Sigrid Kaag said the government had contacted the U.S. Embassy and was
told that invitations had been sent to all political parties. Kaag added that
the foreign ministry had requested a meeting between Hoekstra and Foreign
Minister Stef Blok to discuss the matter further.
One unnamed
entrepreneur who was present at the event told De Groene Amsterdammer it was
"certainly not a town hall meeting ... it was more of an informal kick-off
for the election campaign." The next Dutch national election is scheduled
for March 2021.
Thierry
Baudet, the leader of Forum for Democracy, said claims the event was a
fundraiser were "nonsense" and a "conspiracy theory."
This is not
the first time Hoekstra has been associated with the far-right party. In May,
he was interviewed by Baudet for the party's video channel and he was also a
guest speaker at the party's conference last November.
News
A gift from Washington
Forum for Democracy organised a party meeting at the Us
Embassy in The Hague, hosted by Ambassador Pete Hoekstra. This is at odds with
international treaties.
Casper Thomas in
Coen van de Ven beeld Milo
23 September 2020
– published in No 39
https://www.groene.nl/artikel/een-geschenk-uit-washington
It's Thursday,
September 10th. As night falls, a group trickles into the U.S. Embassy at John
Adams Park in Wassenaar. They are here for a meeting that revolves around Forum
for Democracy, the party of foreman Thierry Baudet who hopes to expand his two seats in the
House of Representatives in the coming elections. The thirty to forty names on
the guest list form a striking group: party leaders supplemented by wealthy
entrepreneurs. Host is Ambassador Pete Hoekstra.
'About forty
percent of the invitees were entrepreneurs. The rest was party top', estimates
media entrepreneur Yves Gijrath, who was in this exclusive company. Other
attendees confirm the mix of party management and predominantly entrepreneurs.
'It was a kind of networking meeting to see each other again', says Mp Wybren
van Haga, who was disbarred from the VVD
and joined Baudet. "People around
Forum, the inner circle.".’
De Groene was
able to access the e-mail to the guests. It reads that guests can join the
embassy 'at the invitation of Forum for Democracy and Pete Hoekstra' – in that
order. Anyone who has questions or is still waiting for the formal invitation
of the embassy is asked to contact the sender of the mail, Joyce Vastenhouw,
who signs with her 06 number and her function within the party: 'Head of
Fundraising'.
The company in
Wassenaar awaits a special evening. When entering, satin masks are handed out
with both the American and Dutch flags, an illustration of the old friendship
between the two countries. In the hall there is a buffet with burgers and
chicken. Attendees will also be treated to a speech by Hoekstra, who tells
anecdotes about Trump and complains that
the US President is being spoken negatively in the Netherlands. Baudet will have the opportunity to explain his
campaign strategy and to show a campaign video about Forums 'vision for the
Netherlands in 2040'.
The audience seem
to have been singled out for their sympathy for the party. Several attendees
are already donors. "It was very spectacular," says Gijrath.
'Especially the way the party is going to campaign and how much that's going to
cost.' He himself is not a member, he stresses, but he has been following
Baudet and his movement with interest for years. Another entrepreneur who was
allowed to come but was abroad for business confirms what other sources say:
they were not just invited. 'I do business in America, I'm an FvDmember and I'm donating to the party.
But of course there are 50,000 other members so it's special that they choose
me.' It underlines the impression of the invitation: the evening at the
embassy, on US soil, was one of the goals of supplementing forum's party
coffers.
In his podcast
Gijrath describes the evening as 'a kind of
funding meeting'. His
interlocutor during the recording, the day after 10 September, was Erik de
Vlieger, a real estate entrepreneur living in Portugal. Together, they gloat
about a possible second term in office for Trump -- and they're gloating about
a possible second term in Trumpoffice.
If the Republicans win the election, De Vlieger predicts, Democratic leaders
will be arrested and Trump will
"replace all the judges." And:
Trump is coming to the Netherlands 'to
help Baudet', de Vlieger is convinced. Baudet
But Forum is
already enjoying support from theTrumpadministration in away. Ambassador
Hoekstra was a prominent speaker at the party congress in December last year.
He thought it was 'fantastic to be there', championed populism and proclaimed
that 'the transatlantic relationship can be changed'. A recording of that
speech can be seen on FvD'sFacebook
page, with a flashing banner underneath: 'Support our movement, join!' and a
link to the sign-up form. Hoekstra is apparently a member puller.
'Pete Hoekstra
actively uses his position to support a party'
Hoekstra's
performance is surprising, even in his homeland. "Speaking at a party
congress is a clear identification with a party," says Alan Henrikson,emeritus
professor of history of international relations at The Fletcher
School of Law and Diplomacy. According to Henrikson,
that's "inappropriate" for a diplomat.
Hoekstra also
appeared in the'FvDnews', an online video series in which Baudet
expresses campaign messages and discusses politics and culture with
FvDemployees and sympathizers. The episode of 1 May 2020 is entirely devoted to
a conversation with Hoekstra about China. The ambassador sits at the table with
an FvDmug in front ofhim. The party logo
can be seen in the background and a link to a membership form appears again at
the bottom of the picture. Until recently, one of the opening images of the
Forum website was a moving image of a pete hoekstra speaker.
It is not
surprising that Hoekstra and Forum have come together. Hoekstra, a politician
with roots in the Tea Party and very conservative views on gay rights and
abortion, finds little ideological connection in his host country. But with
Baudet- one of Trump's rare outspoken admirers
Trump in the House of Representatives - there is kinship: like Trump, Baudet denounces ambitious climate
plans, advocates curbing migration and shields himself from the "fake
news"allegation when the press scrutinizes him. The evening at the
embassy on September 10 seems to confirm a new transatlantic friendship on the
right.
Upon enquiry
among American diplomats, many react surprised and some even shocked at the
news that the U.S. Embassy was the location for a Forum evening. Professor Alan
Henrikson sees a possible conflict with
the Vienna Convention which stipulates that foreign envoys should not interfere
in the host country's internal politics. "Hoekstra actively uses his
position to support a party," he says.
Marcel Brus,
professor of international public law at the University of Groningen, also
points out that the Netherlands and the US committed themselves to the articles
of the Vienna Convention in 1961. 'It states that the buildings of the mission
should not be used in a manner incompatible with the functions of the mission
as laid down in the Treaty.' These functions are broadly defined but according
to Brus 'the organisation of a party meeting by the embassy is very unusual and
is at odds with these articles'. According to the professor, it would be a
different story if a meeting was part of a series of meetings to become
familiar with the Dutch political landscape.
FvD is not the
only party that has visited the embassy in recent years. Many politicians were
invited to exchange views with Pete Hoekstra or met the ambassador elsewhere in
the country. As far as De Groene could ascertain, two other parties had a
meeting of the same size as Forum at the embassy: CDA and 50Plus, according to
spokesmen of these parties. These meetings had a different character. In 2018,
the CDA visited the embassy with a group of employees as part of a 'College
Tour', which the party organises more often for employees. 50Plus was invited
after Geert Dales had expressed a
positive opinion about Trumpon talk show
Jinek early lastyear. Not long after, a group of executives from across the country
visited the embassy to offer a cheese( at the time, Trump threatened hefty import tariffs).
It has been
agreed to 'say nothing about the evening because it could harm the party'
In both cases, a
party delegation visited Hoekstra, but no campaign videos were shown and the
parties had not brought in any entrepreneurs who had already donated to the
party or who could do so in the future. There was also no intervention by a
fundraiser on behalf of the party.
'Suppose the
embassy wants to take note of what is going on in a political party, suppose
they want to know the ideas of that party. So why do you invite the lenders?'
says Gerrit Voerman, professor of Dutch politics at the University of
Groningen, who was involved in the evaluation of the Political Parties Funding
Act. 'An important question seems to me: who invited these people and why these
people?'
The embassy says
in a response that there is nothing unique about the meeting and that the guest
list has been established 'in cooperation' with FvD. A tour of names on that list shows that Baudet himself was given a large space to
fill the room. Several of our interlocutors, like Gijrath, were called by Baudet asking if they wanted to come.
The embassy did
not publicise the meeting. Many of Hoekstra's meetings with Dutch politicians
are followed by enthusiastic Twitter and Facebook posts. In this case, the
ambassador did tweet that he had a conversation with Senators Paul Cliteur and Paul
Frentrop earlier on the afternoon of September 10, but did not mention
the party meeting after that. Forum also initially holds this meeting with
Hoekstra for itself. A week after that, on September 18th, Baudet
suddenly sent out a tweet about 'a good discussion at the Us Embassy'.
De Groene has
been in talks with attendees for a week. As the week progresses, an increasing
number of guests are holding off the boat. One of them says he has 'agreed with
the party not to say anything about the evening because it could harm the
party'. Entrepreneur and FvDmember Kees
Eldering says we should call the
party spokesman and disconnect. Roland
Kahn, owner of clothing chains anddonor of FvD,confirms that he was present, but does
not wish to comment further. 'As an entrepreneur, I often come to embassies.'
In a response,
the party said: 'Forum for Democracy considers the United States, the
Republican Party and the ambassador as important international allies. We
maintain good ties with them."
The embassy says
it does not consider the evening as a'fundraiser',but as a towntown hall meeting. That term from American
politics is used for public meetings in which the organizer can answer
questions from the public. Alan
Henrikson stresses that openness
is a hall of being of the town hall.
"A private evening at the embassy doesn't look like anything like
that." An entrepreneur says when asked: 'It was definitely not a town
hall meeting, it was too decided for that. It was more of an informal
kick-off to the election campaign.'
In the
Netherlands, political parties must disclose donations received in excess of
4,500 euros. Professor Voerman stresses that 'gifts in kind' such as 'lending a
room' or a drink are also part of this. According to the Ministry of the
Interior, a campaign evening like this can be organised according to dutch
rules, although it seems that this will no longer be possible in the future.
'The plan is to ban donations from outside the EU and the European Economic
Area. This ban is part of the bill to amend the Political Party Funding Act,' a
spokesman said.
De Groene spoke
to ten guests of the evening at the U.S. Embassy. A number of them spoke only
on condition of anonymity. Their names are known to the editorial board
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