Thierry Baudet, elected representative, leader of a political party with five seats in the House of Representatives, figurehead of 49 municipal councils, twitterer with almost 280,000 followers, author of a bestseller about the corona pandemic and regular guest on the public broadcaster on Ongehoord Nederland, believes that the world is run by ‘a conspiracy of evil reptiles’. Baudet stated this in an interview on the American Youtube channel on Monday Geopolitics & Empire.
In doing so, the politician shows himself to be a supporter of a theory that is only popular in the darkest recesses of the internet and that goes a few steps too far even for most conspiracy theorists.
Since the interview with Baudet appeared online, it has been raining dismayed reactions, also from people who, until recently, could count the FvD leader among his friends and comrades in arms. However, his statements should not come as a surprise. They fit seamlessly into a pattern.
Other planet
For example, it is not the first time that Baudet shows that he believes in the reptile theory, which roughly means that our world leaders are in reality disguised reptiles from another planet who feed on the blood and fear of ordinary mortals and under more responsible for the September 11 attacks and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. A year ago, he praised an interview with British conspiracy theorist David Icke on Twitter. Icke, who will soon be the keynote speaker at a meeting of the Samen voor Nederland action movement on Dam Square in Amsterdam, is regarded as the most important propagandist of the reptile theory and is also known for denying the Holocaust.
Moreover, since his arrival at the Binnenhof in 2017, Baudet’s political ideas have been based on conspiracy theories that may seem less far-fetched to a willing listener than his reptilian hypothesis, but in reality are not inferior to it. The FvD’er claimed, among other things, that a deliberate ‘homeopathic dilution’ of the Dutch population is underway, placed ‘question marks’ on the fact that MH17 was shot down by the Russians, repeated time and again that the corona pandemic is a fabrication of the World Economic Forum (WEF) to control civilians questioned Al Qaeda’s responsibility for 9/11 and most recently suggested that Sigrid Kaag was trained as a spy for the Secret Service. In many of those theories, subtle and less subtle anti-Semitic references were never far away.
Radicalization
The question is what moves Baudet now to embrace the reptile theory – which, according to research, is supported by 1.7 percent of the Dutch and 12 million Americans.
Baudet watchers have been signaling a (further) radicalization in the politician’s thinking for several months, which is mainly expressed in his undisguised support for his ‘hero’ Vladimir Putin. At the beginning of this month, he said in an English-language interview: ‘I hope that Russia will win and that NATO, the European Commission and the American Empire will fall apart.’ In another interview, he called the Russian invasion of Ukraine “the most hopeful thing I’ve experienced in my life.”
In addition to speculation about secret links between Forum for Democracy and the Kremlin, such statements fuel the idea among some that Baudet is losing grip on reality. His recent claims about reptiles are unlikely to dispel that belief. ‘I am afraid that reason no longer helps here, perhaps only prayer will help’, ChristenUnie leader Gert-Jan Seegers tweeted about the images of the interview with Geopolitics & Empire. He added to journalists: ‘I wonder if he’s doing well. But I’m not a psychiatrist.’
According to others, Baudet made his statements deliberately. They point out that the reptile theory has an anti-Semitic origin and believe that ‘reptile’ is a metaphor for ‘Jews’. Journalist Chris Aalbers, who wrote a book about the MP, spoke on Twitter of an ‘anti-Semitic dog whistle.’
Metaphor
Baudet himself also stated that he had used ‘reptiles’ as a metaphor, but gave a different explanation. “I was talking about a behind-the-scenes conspiracy of globalists, secret services, psychopaths – which is destroying democracy and freedom,” he tweeted on Tuesday. ‘Those who do this to us are some kind of inhumans, reptiles, machines, in short, the insensible.’
It is a defensive tactic that Baudet uses more often when he is under fire for controversial statements: they must be interpreted figuratively or ironically, it sounds almost standard.
Even some of his (former) confidants do not feel reassured this time. ‘Disbelief. Substitute shame. Speechless,” tweeted former FvD member Yernaz Ramautarsing. Elseviercolumnist Geerten Waling, with whom Baudet once visited Jean-Marie le Pen, was even fiercer. “Time for a party ban due to treason and anti-democratic threat,” he wrote on Twitter. ‘Incidentally, it is also worth considering personally banning the man from the House of Representatives and protecting himself and those around him from his sick mind.’