‘Toxic atmosphere’ surrounds far right Forum voor Democratie: AD

Photo: Depositphotos.com
Photo: Depositphotos.com

Confidential e-mail correspondence, diary entries and Whatsapp messages seen by the AD reveal a ‘toxic working atmosphere’ within Thierry Baudet’s far right party Forum voor Democratie, the paper reported at the weekend.

The AD also spoke to 14 former party workers, some of whom said they had been threatened by ‘sky high fines’ of up to €170,000 for making negative comments about the party after they announced they were leaving.

Others said ‘Baudet lost control various times because of excessive drinking’ and ‘intimidated’ and ‘humiliated’ party workers, for instance by throwing empty wine bottles at them.

In a letter, party press officer Tom Gorny accuses Baudet of racism, quoting a message in the FvD group app in which he says ‘African Americans have lived in the United States for 150 years. Their IQ score is still 40 lower’.

Baudet, who denies some of the incidents such as throwing the bottles told the paper he is a ‘super respectful boss’. ‘People who leave want to damage the party,’ he said.

The revelations made by the ex-party workers come in the wake of a fine of €450 issued to FvD MP Pepijn van Houwelingen for placing a doctored photo of health minister Ernst Kuipers and social affairs minister Yvonne van Gennip raising a Nazi flag on Twitter.

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