Chaos in the new far right in the Netherlands

The leader of the Forum for Democracy, Thierry Baudet, this Tuesday in Amsterdam.ROBIN UTRECHT / AFP

The rise and apparent fall of Thierry Baudet, 37 years old and until now leader of the new extreme right of the Netherlands, has a certain Shakespearean touch for his iron concept of personal loyalty, which has led to his resignation, and the noxious influence exerted by his most inexperienced allies.

Harassed by homophobia and anti-Semitism from the youths of the Forum for Democracy, founded in 2016 by himself, Baudet announced on Monday that he would no longer be head of the list for the general elections next March.

Yesterday he also left the leadership of the formation, which managed to corner Geert Wilders, the best-known far-right politician in the country, and the most recognizable abroad as well.

As is the case in far-right formations in other European neighbors, the shrillness of some of its members ends up unleashing internal fights.

In the Dutch case, the violent messages of some of Baudet's followers on social networks have been the trigger for his departure, which in turn has uncovered the two souls of the group: one ethno-nationalist and the other ultra-conservative, in search of a new boss capable of straightening the course a few months before the elections and in the midst of the pandemic.

A chaos that can benefit Wilders, the natural recipient of the votes that his conflictive rival loses.

Eurosceptic, opposed to multiculturalism and inclined to define the idea of ​​nation in terms of ethnicity, Thierry Baudet had the drive of an entrepreneurial leader capable of governing.

Because although Wilders is the second largest force in the country, with 20 seats in a Congress of 150, the refusal of the rest of the parliamentary arch to agree with his Party for Freedom - in the country of agreements - makes him a prominent image but no real muscle.

As for Baudet's departure, which has overshadowed him since his arrival, it has been forged in two phases.

Uncovered last April, the first batch of WhatsApp messages from members of the Forum for Democracy youth proclaimed things like this: “I join any ideology that makes the Netherlands a place with 95% white and 0% Muslims ”.

Or this other: "National Socialism is the best economic formula in history."

Baudet said that they had taken action on the matter, but this weekend another reality has exploded in their hands.

Not only has a new message emerged on the networks that reads like this: "The Jews have an international pedophile network and they throw women en masse into pornography."

It has also been known that one of the authors of the comments was promoted, while the five members of the youths who had denounced the events were being purged.

And all this under the gaze of Freek Jansen, 28, Baudet's right-hand man, writer of his speeches and intellectual traveling companion.

Baudet and Jansen share the vision of "a magnificent people whose rulers have failed (...) a people represented by the wisdom of Minerva's owl, goddess of reason," according to Baudet's speech of victory in the elections provincial elections of 2019. His party already had two seats in Congress since 2017, but it swept the regional elections, which allow the Senate to be elected, with 13 seats.

It thus complicated the approval of the laws to the center-right government, which lost the majority in the Upper House (set at 38 of the 75 seats, the coalition in power remained at 31).

Freek Jansen was seventh on the electoral list of March 2021, and the legitimacy that this would have given him, if elected, has stirred up the main figures of the party.

“Actually, it is a hierarchical club where he is the most powerful and the rest of the members have little to say.

There are five prominent ones, but he rules, ”says Chris Aalberts, author of both works on the Baudet and Geert Wilders parties.

In his opinion, before being disloyal to his friend and collaborator, Baudet preferred to leave.

Freek Jansen, for his part, has withdrawn from the electoral race.

Future in the air

“Baudet's future depends on what happens in the next few days, because in the Dutch electoral system you can get a seat thanks to the nominal vote, and today he does not rule out running at the bottom of the list and entering Parliament thanks to his charisma.

This would show that he has popular support ”, explains Willem Wagenaar, researcher at the Anne Frank Foundation.

To illustrate the implosion registered within the Forum for Democracy, he describes the internal debate that characterizes it, “among ethno-nationalists, who proclaim the substitution of the white population by immigrants of other ethnic groups as a maneuver of the political elites, and the ultra-conservative wing.

The second is not so comfortable with the vision of ethnicity, and it is possible that they are irreconcilable ”.

Political scientist Sarah de Lange, who studies generational differences when voting, stresses that Baudet's work had not been contested. “But the messages from the youths have finally earned him criticism from relevant names in his group for not having done enough. He says he wanted to await the results of an internal investigation without undergoing a media trial. But it is that Freek Jansen is very important for his work, and presides over the youths that say these things. So now the total reorganization of this branch is proposed ”, he indicates. Like the rest of the interviewees, she is not sure that Thierry Baudet has reached the end of his political career, “but it has become clear that he was not the moderate version of Wilders; his ideas were always radical ”, he adds.