The self-described “anti-globalist” leader of a Dutch populist party was assaulted two days ahead of the country’s general election.
Thierry Baudet, the 40-year-old leader of the Forum for Democracy party, was at an election meeting in a Groningen cafe when a teen smashed him over the head with a beer bottle.
According to the party, the populist leader was “hit on the back of the head with a beer bottle and was also hit on the edge of his temple just next to his eye,” and a security guard was also injured. Baudet was taken to a hospital, where he was treated by a trauma surgeon.
Footage of the incident shows an individual sneak up on Baudet, smash the former academic repeatedly in the head, then get tackled by security.
Following the attack, Baudet
told the Dutch newspaper De Andere Krant that Antifa should be placed on the terror list.
“Now that it has become known that Antifa has claimed responsibility for the attack on me, we want Antifa to be immediately placed on the terror list. According to the [Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service], the greatest danger to our democracy is the so-called ‘anti-institutional extremism’, while left-wing activism is
dismissed as a playful phenomenon,” said Baudet.
Police spokesman Thijs de Jong suggested the attacker has been arrested and his motive is presently under investigation,
reported the Washington Post.
Outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte
wrote on X that it was “totally unacceptable that Thierry Baudet has been attacked again. I said it before and I’ll repeat it now: stay away from politicians.”
Last month, Baudet was attacked by another radical while on his way to speak at a conservative event at Ghent University in Belgium. The attacker of Ukrainian origin, whom Belgian police
indicated will be prosecuted for “intentional assault and battery,” reportedly said “no to fascism, no to Putinism,” after slugging Baudet over the head with a weighty umbrella.
Extra to his criticism of globalism, mass immigration, LGBT activism, the European Union, and NATO, Baudet has proven a controversial figure over his
apparent refusal to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine and corresponding suggestion that the conflict is the fault of the West.
Baudet said Tuesday he and his team are “working very had behind the scenes to analyze how this could happen a second time, and what we should do about it,” reported the NL Times.
“They say three times is a charm, but I’ll skip that,” he added.
A Monday night poll indicated that the Forum for Democracy party, polling at 2%, stands to possibly take five seats in the 150-seat lower house of the Dutch Parliament. Rutte’s VVD party, now led by Turkish-Kurdish refugee Dilan Yeşilgöz, is leading in the polls with 18%, reported Politico.
The right-wing populist Party for Freedom, run by Islam critic Geert Wilders, has seen significant gains in the polls in recent weeks and now sits at 16%, tied with the leftist GorenLinks-PvdA coalition.
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