Forum for Democracy ( , FvD) is a far-right political party in the Netherlands, originally founded as a think tank by Thierry Baudet and Henk Otten in 2015 before registering itself as a party the following year. The FvD first participated in elections in the 2017 general election, winning two seats in the House of Representatives.
At the time of its conception, the FvD was a conservative liberal and Eurosceptic movement positioned on the right-wing of the political spectrum. During its initial years, the FvD was defined as a national conservative political party focused on opposing Dutch membership of the European Union, political reform and protection of Dutch culture. Following the 2017 general election, the FvD saw a period of popularity in opinion polls and grew to become the largest party during the 2019 Dutch provincial elections. However, it underwent an ideological change and adopted increasingly radical policies and messages following the departure of several of its founding members and saw a subsequent decline in support. Presently, the FvD is regarded by media and political analysts to be a right-wing populist, nativist, far-right, radical right, neo-fascist, or extreme-right political party.
History Founding and early years (2016–2018) The FvD was established by Thierry Baudet and Henk Otten as a citizens initiative and then a think tank whose main feat was campaigning in the 2016 Dutch Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement referendum and against the EU in general. The think-tank argued for the introduction of a referendum act and campaigned with GeenPeil to have an inquiry into Dutch membership of the eurozone. In 2015, Baudet along with journalists Jort Kelder and Arno Wellens took the initiative to parliament to call for a debate on the eurozone.
In September 2016, it converted itself into a political party founded by Baudet, Henk Otten and Rob Rooken and announced its intention to take part in the 2017 general election. The FvD ended up with 1.8% of the vote, entering parliament for the first time with two seats taken by Baudet and well-known lawyer and commentator Theo Hiddema.
In February 2018, in part due to its rapidly growing pace, the party suffered from internal issues with a number of prominent members leaving the party because they felt the party had a lack of internal democracy.
Electoral breakthrough (2018–2019) In the 2018 municipal elections, the FvD won three seats on the Amsterdam city council. The party only stood in Amsterdam. In Rotterdam however it endorsed the Livable Rotterdam party.
During the 2019 provincial elections, FvD made a major breakthrough and won 86 seats, spread across the twelve provinces of the Netherlands. In South Holland, North Holland, and Flevoland, FvD became the largest party, winning 11, nine, and eight seats. As populists, the bulk of the Forum's nominated parliamentary candidates did not have prior active experience in other political parties. On 30 April 2020, Forum for Democracy formed a coalition with the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) in the North Brabant province, the first time the party had formally entered into the administration of a regional authority.CDA members in Brabant say ‘yes’ to alliance with far-right FvD , dutchnews.nl, 30 April 2020, accessed 7 December 2020
The FvD gained three MEPs during the 2019 European Parliament election. The party's lead candidate was journalist and former Lijst Dedecker politician Derk Jan Eppink. After the election, they joined the European Conservatives and Reformists.
In August 2019, former FvD senator and founding member Henk Otten announced he had registered Group Otten (GO) as a new political party. GO had two seats in the Senate and one seat in the European Parliament which were taken up by former FvD members.
In late 2020, former VVD MP Wybren van Haga defected to the party.
Internal divides (2020–2021) In 2020, a series of rows and divides broke out within the party. The events began in April 2020 after HP/De Tijd revealed instances of antisemitism, racism, homophobia and extreme comments including glorification of Anders Breivik and Brenton Tarrant in online WhatsApp groups associated with FvD's youth wing, the Jongerenorganisatie Forum voor Democratie (JFvD). The FvD executive board later investigated these instances and claimed not all the people involved were FvD members but discharged three individuals from the party. Three additional members were also suspended. In a statement, the FvD described the messages as "completely unacceptable." More similar messages were revealed in November by newspaper Het Parool which published an article about extremist comments made by members the party's youth organization in social media chats, including support for Nazi Germany, which led to several JFvD coordinators being removed from their positions. At the same time, other former members of the JFvD came forward and claimed that they had raised concerns about extremist messages to the youth-wing board and the FvD's leadership but had been expelled from the party for sending "defamatory material" to the media.
In response, an internal committee of inquiry was launched at the behest of the youth-wing for the party's executive board to investigate the issue. Some FvD politicians such as Hiddema argued that the youth wing should be disbanded and replaced while others stated the FvD should follow the example of the Sweden Democrats by threatening the youth-wing with disassociation from the mother party unless it cleaned up. Baudet also announced he would resign as the lead candidate for the 2021 general election and Lennart van der Linden stood in as the party's temporary leader. The day after Baudet stood aside as leader, party vice-leader Hiddema vacated his seat in the House for "personal reasons," although some media outlets speculated that this was due to controversies within the party. The following day, Senator Paul Cliteur also resigned from his position as Senate leader while remaining a member of the party.
A day after his resignation, Baudet reversed his decision and said the party would hold a leadership contest. In response, several prominent FvD members accused Baudet of making antisemitic and racist statements. On 26 November 2020, Algemeen Dagblad obtained a letter by FvD Senator Nicki Pouw-Verweij alleging multiple incidents that had taken place during a campaign meeting for the election and at a dinner party held on 20 November for the FvD's candidates. These included Baudet repeatedly making antisemitic jokes and statements and expressing conspiracy theories such as claiming that the COVID-19 lockdowns were concocted by George Soros and lashing out at party colleague Joost Eerdmans who had challenged Baudet's remarks. Pouw-Verweij also claimed that while Baudet had criticized the party's youth-wing in public, he had privately supported some of the statements made by its members, and furthermore argued that the FvD had become more focused on conspiracy theories and trying to draw publicity by provoking controversy instead of holding serious policy discussions. Her accusations were supported by FvD candidates Eerdmans and Eva Vlaardingerbroek. Other FvD spokespeople including Olaf Ephraim disputed the allegations and claimed that Baudet had expressed provocative opinions but was not a "fascist, homophobe, or Nazi sympathizer." Baudet also denied the accusations during a subsequent talk show interview. After a stalemate was reached with half of the FvD's executive board supporting Baudet and the other half calling for him to stand aside, the board announced an internal referendum among the membership on whether to keep Baudet as leader or expel him from the party and replace him with a new lead candidate. This took place on 3 December 2020, with 76% of FvD members voting in favour of Baudet remaining in the party and resuming the role of its leader. In protest at the outcome, the FvD's three MEPs, seven of its senators and some of its parliamentary candidates for the upcoming general election announced their departure from the party. Many of them joined JA21 founded by Eerdmans and former FvD Senator Annabel Nanninga who had quit in response to what they saw as the party's inadequate handling of the youth-wing controversies and clashes with Baudet. Both said that the new party would stay closer to the FvD's original ideas.
Splits and radicalization (2021–2024) At the 2021 general election, the party campaigned against COVID-19 lockdown measures in the Netherlands imposed by the Dutch government and managed to win eight MPs. However, the issue of racist comments from youth members was brought up again during the campaign. One of the accused youth members, Gideon van Meijeren, was elected into parliament, as was youth wing chairman Freek Jansen.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the party caused controversy and saw another three of its MPs leave in May 2021 after it released a poster comparing lockdown measures with the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The analogy and timing of the poster was criticized by the Central Jewish Board of the Netherlands. Baudet declined to apologize for the poster, saying that causing controversy was an integral part of FvD. The three former FvD MPs; Van Haga, Ephraim and Hans Smolders later founded the Belang van Nederland with Van Haga stating on Twitter that he had resigned from the FvD due to "a difference of opinion about how to engage in politics" and that his new party would continue the FvD's ideas. During the pandemic, members of FvD were accused of circulating conspiracy theories regarding the COVID-19 vaccine and using further Holocaust comparisons with vaccinations and social distancing. In December 2021, a Dutch court found Baudet guilty of "creating a breeding ground for antisemitism" with his statements and ordered him to delete social media posts comparing COVID policies to the Holocaust or face a fine. Baudet denied that his statements were intended to be offensive or antisemitic.
In 2022, the FvD regained representation in the European Parliament when Marcel de Graaff defected to the party. As a result, the FvD became a member of the Identity and Democracy group instead of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). In 2022 FvD left the European Conservatives and Reformists Party. In March 2022, two of the party's Senators Hiddema and Paul Frentrop left the party in protest at the FvD's decision not to attend Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's speech to the House of Representatives, leaving only Senator Johan Dessing. In October 2022, the FvD was suspended from the Identity and Democracy group after de Graaff expressed support for Putin on Twitter. He later quit the group and the FvD subsequently became a Non-Inscrit member of European Parliament.
In April 2023, a number of former party representatives and employees within the parliamentary group and at the party's head office described an unsafe environment within the FvD that had remained private for a number of years and included racism and antisemitism. A former press officer for the party claimed the FvD's direction and working environment was partly due to Baudet's excessive drinking.
During the 2023 Dutch Senate election the party retained two seats.