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It's #Thanksgiving, I've got the day off and I've only got two things on my to do list:
Roast a turkey
Explain the FvD meltdown to all my non-Dutch followers.
Let's do this. #FVDsoap
Roast a turkey
Explain the FvD meltdown to all my non-Dutch followers.
Let's do this. #FVDsoap
First, we need to start with some back story. This is Thierry Baudet.
But Molly, you say, he's holding a copy off Mein Kampf.
Yes, this is a rhetorical device known as foreshadowing.
But Molly, you say, he's holding a copy off Mein Kampf.
Yes, this is a rhetorical device known as foreshadowing.
Baudet considers himself to be "the most important intellectual of the Netherlands." He studies under Paul Cliteur (this guy will come back around, make a note) at the University of Leiden.
His doctorate “Aanval op de Natiestaat” or "The attack on the nation-state" is barely awarded because professors had such an intense debate about granting it. This almost never happens.
In 2015, Baudet, together with Henk Otten (another name you need to remember) founds Forum for Democracy as a think tank. They claim it is a "broad movement of concerned Dutchmen" and will study "the renewal of democracy in the Netherlands."
Forum for Democracy, or FvD, teams up with GeenStijl and others to organize a referendum into the ascension of Ukraine to the EU (Nederlands referendum over de Associatieovereenkomst tussen de Europese Unie en Oekraïne).
It was a dumb, non-binding referendum.
It was a dumb, non-binding referendum.
But it's a major success for the FvD, which then founds a political party. The party stands in 2017 parliament (Tweede Kamer) elections where the party gets two seats in the house, those seats were taken by Thierry Baudet and Theo Hiddema (yes, you also need to know this guy.)
Here's the party list from that election. This will be important later.
Baudet installs a piano in his office at parliament.
Also it is revealed he likes to huff lavender.
(For the Americans, The Netherlands is a parliamentary representative democracy - so seats in the lower house are allocated based on political party. The joke to outsiders is that the Dutch have more bikes than people but really they have more political parties than bikes.)
There are immediate problems. In 2018, the party kicked out a few members (including an ex-senator.) The person third on the “list” Susan Teunissen left the party. (Yes, this name too.) I'm sure there was a reason but I can't remember. Assume it's over patat v friet.
But, in, 2019, the party wins big in the provincial elections (Provinciale Statenverkiezingen). This is where everyone votes for representatives to the provincial councils which then elect the senate and it becomes the largest in three provinces.
Here is a helpful graph of how things go with the FvD.
Following the 2019 victory, Baudet gives his "The Owl of Minerva spreads its wings at nightfall speech." This speech is written by Freek Jansen (yes this name too, you can do it. We're not even at a full soccer team yet.)
No one understands this speech. https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nieuws/politiek/artikel/4650251/de-speech-van-baudet-forum-voor-democratie-5-opmerkelijke
It's not the best Baudet speech story though. In 2017, his first speech in parliament gets shut down becaue he speaks Latin, which is not an official language of the Netherlands.
Please watch.
Please watch.
Baudet is basically an unending ophef generator. I'm not including everything because I have to go be on Ukrainian TV in an hour, but I will include one of my personal favorites.
In 2018, Baudet sent an email at 2AM to all of his fellow MPs, complaining about the lack of classical music on a list of top 150 songs from the parliament. He apparently hates disco so I'm listening to some Bee Gees as I write this.
Ok ok back on topic where were we?
In 2019, Henk Otten got the boot from the party. Turns out he’d played a little fast and loose with the party finances as treasurer.
In 2019, Henk Otten got the boot from the party. Turns out he’d played a little fast and loose with the party finances as treasurer.
Ok one more target. Both Baudet and Otten accused each other of spending party money improperly. Otten said Baudet spent 5,000 euros on plants for his office. Those plants were later found dead and the rumor is that Otten killed them by pouring white wine on them.
In 2020 Otten sets up his own party, Party for the Future. It’s worth noting that Otten was formerly a member of LPF. (Maybe this will be another tangent, we will see how the turkey is doing.)
During the FvD becomes increasingly affiliated itself with conspiracy theorists, such as Lange Frans and Robert Jensen. (You don't need to know these names.) This leads to a decline in the polls and internal critique and friction.
Now you're up to speed. On Saturday, it is revealed that the FvD youth group, the JFVD, are basically a bunch of baby Nazis when group chat messages are leaked. https://www.parool.nl/nederland/nazifoto-s-geen-bezwaar-bij-de-jongeren-van-forum-voor-democratie~b634560c/
It's basically this, but in a group chat.
This isn’t the first time this exact thing has happened! The exact same literal thing happened in the spring.
But now there's hell to pay.
But now there's hell to pay.
On Sunday, the JFVD board quits. They ask Paul Cliteur (remember this guy from before?), Olaf Ephraim and Wybren van Haga. This is widely considered to be a sham because all three of these folks are known for being Baudet supporters.
Baudet says the JFVD board gave "an excellent performance."
Could have been a repeat of earlier but for this lady, who drops the Tweet heard round the (Dutch political) world. https://twitter.com/ANanninga/status/1330448865678471173
Nanninga is a, surprisingly for this story, competent Amsterdam city councilor. She, fun fact, never finished high school. She's also got some real questionable opinions about migrants and the Holocaust.
Later on Sunday, the top of the list (I told you the list mattered), including Theo Hiddema, demands the JFVD be disbanded and that Freek Jansen step down as chairman of the JVFD board and step off of the list.
Things to know about Jansen. He organized a 2017 dinner with Baudet and Jared "The Jews are whte enough, I guess" Taylor.
He also wrote the owl speech.
He also wrote the owl speech.
Anyway, on Sunday the board of the FvD - of which Baudet is the chair - sends a letter to Baudet demanding these things.
According to the NRC - Hiddema, who is infamous for standing outside of buildings smoking and also walking his cat on a leash, apparently texted the FvD at midnight on Sunday night that he was “done with this bullshit.”
Baudet - via the official FvD twitter - announced that he’s stepping out of the list for the 2021 elections - oh that’s right there are national elections in March 2021, but he will keep his place in Parliament - a weird thing you can do in this buttermilk-infested country.
The announcement is made in what I can only imagine is an upscale, rooms by the hour, hotel. https://twitter.com/fvdemocratie/status/1330922769568198660
Baudet also says will remain as party chairman.
Later that night, there’s an emergency FvD meeting. The party announces it will cut ties with the youth organization (JFVD) and also that our little Peggy Noonan-wannabe Jansen would not stand on the next list.
Now, this actually matters because while FvD has two seats currently in the Tweede Kamer, polls were showing them getting five seats in the March elections. https://peilingwijzer.tomlouwerse.nl/p/english.html
As people tend to vote for those at the top of the list, slots 1-5 would matter.
As people tend to vote for those at the top of the list, slots 1-5 would matter.
On Tuesday, Baudet announces he will step down as the party chair but like a bad ex-bf you just can’t get to stop showing up at your house, he says "I am not done with politics, I am not done with Forum for Democracy and I am not done with the Netherlands," he says.
On Tuesday afternoon, our leashed-cat owner Hiddema, who looks like the second character to die in any Agatha Christie novel, announces he is stepping down.
Please take two and a half a minutes to watch this video the WHOLE WAY TO THE END. I will wait. https://www.nu.nl/284531/video/arib-reageert-op-vertrek-hiddema-dit-nieuws-overvalt-me.html
Now do we remember that list? https://twitter.com/MollyQuell/status/1331935959571689473
So Baudet is out, Hiddema is out, Teunissen quit a year ago and that leaves us with....Henk Otten.
But Molly, you say, didn't Otten quit the party and start an entirely other party?
Yes.
That doesn't matter because ultimately all forms of government are ultimately built on cigar smoke and dreams.
Yes.
That doesn't matter because ultimately all forms of government are ultimately built on cigar smoke and dreams.
It's not clear as I write this what will happen with the seats, but Teunissen has declined the seat and Otten is undecided.
Also on Tuesday, our surprisingly competent but otherwise deeply questionable city counciler writes an op ed in which she says she’s quitting the party if politics are the sideshow and the ophef is the main act, which is ironic because that’s FvD’s entire brand.
It uses a photo that looks like a still from the worst buddy cop movie ever made.
https://tpo.nl/2020/11/24/annabel-nanninga-ik-stap-nu-niet-op-maar-thierry-baudet-moet-wel-weg-uit-forum-voor-democratie/
https://tpo.nl/2020/11/24/annabel-nanninga-ik-stap-nu-niet-op-maar-thierry-baudet-moet-wel-weg-uit-forum-voor-democratie/
Then on Tuesday Baudet’s Emperor Palpatine Cliteur announces he’s stepping down from his seat in the Senate, where he’s also the party’s leader.
Like the American election, this shit keeps going and on Wednesday. Baudet, via FvD social media, calls for a leadership election of the FvD. Ya know, for that position he literally just stepped down from. https://twitter.com/fvdemocratie/status/1331567191448309760
Same hotel room. I assume he spent the night.
Oh and clearly after having one of the 97 books about how Dutch people just do absolutely nothing and have totally empty agendas, he says the elections will take place in less than a week.
After his take backsie, whatever hell had not broken loose before breaks loose.
The board, which, according to Facebook he’s now “in a complicated relationship with” rejects this call for elections and then LOCKS THIS MUTHERFUCKER OUT OF THE FVD OFFICE IN AMSTERDAM. https://twitter.com/elodieverweij/status/1331579723793698823
But Baudet, as the true millennial he is, still has the keys to the social media castle. Amongst other things, he sends a newsletter. Sure why not.
On Wednesday afternoon, he tells the NOS "Have these people gone completely crazy? I founded Forum for Democracy.”
I have no comment here because there is nothing I can say. https://nos.nl/artikel/2358095-crisisdagen-bij-forum-voor-democratie-wat-er-tot-nu-toe-gebeurde.html
I have no comment here because there is nothing I can say. https://nos.nl/artikel/2358095-crisisdagen-bij-forum-voor-democratie-wat-er-tot-nu-toe-gebeurde.html
Later on Wednesday, Nicki Pouw-Verweij, an FvD senator sends a letter to the FvD board. She claims that at a dinner the day before the JFVD stuff broke (so Friday) that Baudet and Joost Oordmans got into an argument about power in the party.
I don’t know that they had a duel but I don’t know they didn’t either.
(Oordmans is also an ex-LPFer.)
In keeping with the theme, I'm switching to 80s disco. https://twitter.com/mattsteinglass/status/1331904178847887360
Joost Eerdmans* - whoops
Here are some highlights from this letter:
Baudet would accept three million deaths if this saved our freedom re: corona measures
He claimed the virus was made by George Soros
"Hillary Clinton and the pedophiles did not succeed, but that it would now work through corona"
Baudet would accept three million deaths if this saved our freedom re: corona measures
He claimed the virus was made by George Soros
"Hillary Clinton and the pedophiles did not succeed, but that it would now work through corona"
When others at the dinner criticised the JVFD anti-semitism, Baudet said "Where does your crusade against anti-Semitism come from? Almost everyone I know is anti-Semite."
(DO YOU REMEMBER WHERE I SAID THE THING ABOUT FORESHADOWING EARLIER?)
(DO YOU REMEMBER WHERE I SAID THE THING ABOUT FORESHADOWING EARLIER?)
Anyway, the letter got leaked, you can read it here. https://nos.nl/artikel/2358110-brief-over-baudet-vol-ruzie-en-complottheorieen.html
Two other people present Joost Eerdmans and Eva Vlaardingerbroek confirm this is accurate. https://tpo.nl/2020/11/26/briefje-van-jan-aan-joost-eerdmans-eva-vlaardingerbroek-en-jan-cees-vogelaar/
For someone who is claiming he’s being “tried by the media” Baudet then spends Wednesday night and Thursday morning going on every media program in this country. Did anyone watch the Sinterklaas journal? Was he on that too?
Amongst other appearances, on Thursday morning, he goes on Goedemorgen Nederland where he asks the FvD for a divorce.
While he’s on Goedemorgen Nederland, Vlaardingerbroek calls in.
Now Eva here is aptly named and also a graduate of the same law program in Leiden (has anyone looked into the water there?)
Now Eva here is aptly named and also a graduate of the same law program in Leiden (has anyone looked into the water there?)
Oh and she’s dating one Julien Rochedy who is an ex-National Front (yes that’s the French far-right party) and YouTuber.
You can decide which of those two things is worse.
You can decide which of those two things is worse.
In a Shakespearean twist, Eva confirms all of the wild stuff from the Nicky letter, a betrayal which brings Baudet to tears because, as he reveals, they used to be lovers.
Side note every single person mentioned in this saga so far needs to be in a lot of therapy. A lot.
That basically brings us to this very moment unless something happened while I was typing, which it probably did.
I leave you with this photo that Baudet posted on his Instagram.
I leave you with this photo that Baudet posted on his Instagram.
Ok, fine for the TL;DR crowd.
In summary, the FvD:
How it started How it's going
In summary, the FvD:
How it started How it's going
