The former party leader of Forum for Democracy (FVD) in Overijssel, Johan Almekinders, is taking the board of the party to court, he announced on Friday. Almekinders argues that there is maladministration around the referendum on Thierry Baudet’s party leadership.
Almekinders is also going to court on behalf of other former FVD members of Parliament in Overijssel and Utrecht. He told NU.nl that he wants the referendum result to be annulled.
The former party leader has hired a lawyer to start the case. There is not yet a date for a lawsuit.
Almekinders was last Thursday expelled from the party. At the end of last month, four of the five States members of FVD in Overijssel split from the party. Almekinders was one of them.
He is critical of Baudet’s role and spoke out against the party’s referendum on leadership. According to him, the membership records are so messy and incomplete that a proper referendum cannot be held. There is also no notary with independent supervision and board members of the youth department are involved in the referendum. “While they have just been put at a distance,” said Almekinders.
“It was already too late to stop the referendum. That was set up by leaps and bounds. All this to make it a ‘Forum of Baudet’.”
The result of the vote, in which he was also allowed to participate, will always be debatable, also because no alternative is offered. “Compared to this, the election over the leadership within the CDA went very well.”
Deputy party chairman: ‘Confidence in referendum and result’
According to deputy chairman of the FVD board Lennart van der Linden, “everyone is free” to start a lawsuit. It is then up to the judge to judge the course of events. “That’s how we do it in the Netherlands.”
Van der Linden says he still has faith in the referendum and the result. According to him, “professional parties” are monitoring the membership consultation and the outcome will be fair and reliable, he says. It does get “complicated” when the results are very close to each other. He doesn’t want to anticipate what will happen next.
FVD members have until 6 pm on Friday to cast their vote. If Baudet wins, he and ally Olaf Ephraim will come up with a new board and a new list of candidates for the House of Representatives elections. If he loses, he withdraws. The other board members then propose a new party board. They will not take their place in this themselves.
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