The power struggle at Forum for Democracy seems with the election of Thierry Baudet as party leader, yesterday evening, settled in his favor. But the internal crisis has left deep marks. Not only in the provinces, but also in the European Parliament, the Senate and the city council of Amsterdam, representatives of the people have said goodbye to the party. Half of the top 10 for the parliamentary elections in March have also dropped out.
There were always fierce quarrels at FvD. For example, Amsterdam councilor Anton van Schijndel was kicked out last spring by party chairman Annabel Nanninga. He has since been single-handedly forming the Liberal Conservative Group in the capital. And also the fraction in the Senate had already shrunk as a result of the conflict between founders Baudet and Henk Otten.
Idle time
But before the current crisis started, the party still had 92 representatives left in the various forums. However, the revelations about extreme right-wing expressions of FvD youth and the leader himself then started a complete exodus. More than a third of the seats in the Provincial Council and more than half of the seats in the Senate are no longer in the hands of the party.
Support for Baudet has also declined sharply among voters. Where Forum was in the polls about a year and a half ago the same size was like Rutte’s VVD, the party did not get further than four to eight parliamentary seats in the last Polling Guide. It is to be feared for Thierry Baudet that there are now only one or two parliamentary seats left.
Serve
At the time, in the spring of 2019, Baudet was still at the top of the political Olympus. No party that won as many new members as Forum for Democracy. In the Provincial Council elections in March 2019, Forum became the largest in both the senate (twelve seats) and in the Parliament with 86 seats.
The party went in North Brabant ultimately co-ordinate. And also in Limburg FvD provided a commissioner, albeit officially in a party-less college.
The high number of representatives has since declined rapidly due to various conflicts. An even greater exodus was set in motion by the crisis that arose after a piece in Het Parool on 21 November about FvD youth members with extreme right-wing sympathies.
At least 29 statesmen have left in recent weeks. And that’s not all. The Limburg deputy Burlet has also finished Baudet and is now really continuing without a party.
Lawsuit
Among the leavers is also part of the fraction in Overijssel, where four of the five States members started their own business. According to former party leader Johan Almekinders, many members were “done with Baudet’s unstable behavior”. Almekinders is still starting a lawsuit to get the outcome of today’s and yesterday’s referendum dropped. Farmers foreman Jan Cees Vogelaar, among others, is participating in this procedure. Vogelaar was in 9th place on the candidate list for the parliamentary elections.
In the coming days it will have to be seen whether it will stop there or whether more people will leave the party. For example, the Frisian party leader Maarten Goudzwaard said he had previously decided for himself that he would be gone if Thierry Baudet stayed. His South Holland colleague Matthijs Sandmann seems to be on the same page.
One of Baudet’s tasks as re-elected ‘party leader’ of Forum for Democracy is to compile a new candidate list for the upcoming elections. In more ways, he will have to start all over again in the near future.
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