Clarity never hurts. That’s why I can’t be heartbroken by the latest pranks of Member of Parliament Gideon van Meijeren and his boss Thierry Baudet. Better proof of their lack of democratic sense of norms is no longer necessary, is it?
If they ever really get something to say in the Netherlands, we know what to expect. Then Van Meijeren no longer walks alone through the chambers of the parliamentary journalists to call them sewer rats, but is accompanied by two plainclothes policemen who will say to the troublesome journalist in a compelling tone: ‘Come with me. to the office? It’s just a formality. If everything is in order, we will take you home tonight.” In the background, Van Meijeren will add in that perky, whiny voice: “Then you can write those filthy pieces again.”
While they at FVD are increasingly openly yearning for their fascist tribunals, the question arises: will it ever come to that in the Netherlands? It is precisely thanks to the Baudets, Van Meijerens and Van Houwelingens that I suspect that it will not be too bad. You are now also seeing more and more embarrassment about the behavior of prominent FVD members among the ‘normal right’. Gone are the days when they were greeted as “fresh apparitions” in the parliamentary firmament.
Take Johan Derksen, also involved in the new riot surrounding Van Meijeren, who tried to blow up a silly mistake by an SBS6 journalist to mythical proportions. In November 2018, Derksen was a special guest at the party congress of FVD. He received a book about FVD MP Theo Hiddema and said: “I think it is very important that the decent right is heard in the Netherlands. I am not a member, but I will vote for you.”
‘Decent right’, yes. There were already enough warning voices, but Derksen and many with him still saw FVD as an attractive right-wing alternative to PVV or VVD. That mood has changed, also at Derksen, mainly thanks to the crazy conspiracy thinking of leader Baudet and the rude behavior of disciples such as Van Houwelingen and Van Meijeren.
The aversion to FVD is also growing in the House of Representatives; of the influential parliamentarians, it is only Wilders who continues to support Baudet squarely if it causes riots. That is not strange: Baudet and his men have copied a lot from Wilders in terms of verbal aggressiveness, certainly towards journalism.
Baudet et al. should no longer expect support from a scientific angle. There is a lost, right-wing radicalized professor emeritus like Paul Cliteur, but who takes him seriously anymore? In a recent book review he wrote on the FVD site, Cliteur remarks: „In Germany war propaganda may have been working at full capacity, that is also the case in the Netherlands. At the NPO (minus ON) we receive daily news about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine that is at least one-sided.”
Apparently only Ongehoord Nederland journalism is reliable for Cliteur. According to him, that war is “certainly partly due to Putin, the ‘aggressor’. But also to the Americans […].”
„mead blame!” As long as they spout such nonsense at FVD, I will remain optimistic about the Netherlands.
A version of this article also appeared in the October 26, 2022 newspaper