5 things to know about Dutch far right’s new figurehead

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.

FvD backed a “Nexit” back in 2017, but the party’s website now says it is in favor of EU membership | Robin Utrecht/EPA

“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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