Senators Theo Hiddema and Paul Frentrop leave the Senate fraction of the Forum for Democracy (FVD). The reason is the party’s decision not to attend the speech of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the House of Representatives on Thursday. Forum for Democracy reports this in a joint statement by the two and party leader Thierry Baudet . on Twitter Wednesday night†
Hiddema and Frentrop separate from the party and cancel their membership. They keep their seat in the Senate and continue independently. As a result, the senate fraction of the right-wing populist party falls from three seats to one seat: only Johan Dessing remains for FVD. Despite the separation, Hiddema and Frentrop will continue to work with FVD.
“We regret this turn of events, but consider our position on Ukraine to be fundamental and, moreover, linked to FVD’s origins as agitator of the Association Agreement referendum,” the party wrote in a response. In recent weeks, party leader Baudet was one of the few Western politicians to blame the war on Ukraine instead of on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Also read this interview with Theo Hiddema about FVD: ‘I don’t want that gunk to surround me all the time’
Hiddema is considered a former confidant of Baudet and joined the House of Representatives in 2017 as a two-member faction with the latter. He left the group at the end of 2020 after it turned out that the youth branch of the party had made racist and anti-Semitic statements in internal app groups. Hiddema was also dissatisfied with the conspiracy theories that Forum used about the corona pandemic. In 2021 he again took place in the Senate on behalf of FVD.