PVV leader Geert Wilders apologizes to Frans Timmermans for the images of him made with AI. The possibly defamatory images were allegedly made by PVV MPs Maikel Boon from Bergen op Zoom and Patrick Crijns from Landgraaf.
“Inappropriate and unheard of. I distance myself from it. Site is offline. Apologies to colleague Timmermans,” says the leader of the PVV to know X.
The AI images, in which Timmermans is taken away in handcuffs by officers, were on the Facebook page ‘We are not reporting Geert Wilders’. De Groene Amsterdammer wrote earlier, as did the Volkskrant Monday, that the two PVV members would be the administrators of that group.
‘Threat to democracy’
After the earlier reporting, GroenLinks-PvdA announced on Monday that they are reporting defamation against the administrators of the page. The party also reports death threats in the comments below the pictures. “Politicians are increasingly threatened, we also see this during this campaign. That is a threat to democracy. Pages like these contribute to that,” says GroenLinks-PvdA.
The police’s Threatened Politicians Team told de Volkskrant that the Facebook page is being investigated. The potentially defamatory image would be barely distinguishable from the real thing.
Safety politicians
Politicians have been threatened before this campaign. PVV leader Geert Wilders and Timmermans, among others, have already openly had to deal with this. Wilders halted his campaign after a terrorist threat from Belgium. Timmermans was attacked and verbally abused during an interview. Many other party leaders are also protected when they appear in public.