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FvD news: Baudet wins?

It seems Baudet has won the power struggle within the FvD; or rather, his opponents have given up and left the party. Still, the party is down 5 seats (from 8 to 3) in the single poll that was run wholly after the debacle.

On Thursday and Friday I kept detailed notes of the moves in the power struggle, but once the major Baudet opponents, Nanninga, Eerdmans and friends, left the party it became clear that Baudet had won.

On Thursday Baudet called for leadership elections; it’s unclear if these are going to proceed now that he has won. Just now it was announced that there would be a member vote as soon as possible.

Again picking up the pieces

Now Baudet can try to pick up the pieces. On the one hand FvD with Baudet will do a lot better than FvD without Baudet; say what you want, he has charisma. On the other hand the party is severely damaged. The accusations of anti-semitism and radicalisation are now generally assumed to be true, and while they will help Baudet with a few voters, more will be put off by them.

Still, the question about Baudet’s opponents has become why they waited so long before doing something about Baudet’s radicalisation. His anti-semite remarks, while more extreme than before, were not fundamentally new, but until last week his intra-party opponents mostly ignored them. The reason is clear: it’s not Baudet’s anti-semitism that’s bothering them, but his pro-Corona stance that is costing the party seats. In other words, the opposition is not better than Baudet.

The (former?) intellectual face of the party, Leiden professor Cliteur, who left the party last week before Baudet’s victory but still supports him, is under attack from within Leiden university for his silence about Baudet’s radicalisation. Let’s see if there will be any stronger consequences than a bit of intellectual discomfort.

Still, the FvD spell over the media has been broken; at least partially. A few journalists are finally asking the right questions. And since media fascination was one of Baudet’s strongest trump cards this may grow into a serious problem.

In how much trouble is the party right now? Peil.nl ran a special extra poll on Friday, before Baudet won the struggle, to measure the effect of the infighting. Result: FvD lost 5 out of 8 seats, 4 of which went to Wilders. That paints a clear picture, and it shows there is not much difference between PVV and FvD. Then again, Peil.nl frequently assigns too much weight to the populist parties. Let’s hope one of the other pollsters runs a poll as well in the near future.

One thing should be stressed: unlike Baudet Wilders is not an anti-semite. The opposite, rather; he has always been a stalwart defender of the state of Israel. Although a few other PVV members occasionally flirted with anti-semitism, the fact that Wilders decides what happens means that the PVV as a party will steer clear of this particular form of racism. (Also, I always assumed anti-semtism is incompatible with anti-islam, and Wilders is anti-islam first and foremost.)

If this news dump seems a bit chaotic, that’s exactly how the situation feels as well.

Old news

Below is the chronicle I kept last Thursday and Friday, after I published my previous piece.

• Thursday: FvD treasurer Ephraim, a Baudet loyalist, spoke about the dinner party where Baudet is said to have made anti-semitic remarks. He said that Baudet made a few provocative remarks, as we can expect from him, but that he is no fascist, homophobe, or nazi sympathiser. Also, none of the others present demanded Baudet apologise or take back his words.
  That’s interesting. Ephraim implicitly admits Baudet said nasty stuff about Soros and Corona. Also, at that point in time the rest of the FvD luminaries present did not protest. All the more evidence for my theory that the FvD opposition doesn’t really care about anti-semitism, but does deeply care about the losses in the polls due to Baudet’s pro-Corona stance.
• Thursday: The FvD board (minus Baudet and one loyalist) proposes a general member meeting to decide on Baudet’s membership and to elect a new board. Current board members cannot sit on the new board. In return Baudet will have to agree to a media silence and withdraw from he board.
  This last clause is the problem. Baudet is unable to keep silent. Also, if he withdraws from the board now, will be count as a current member for the purposes of the new board elections?
  Also, will this be a virtual meeting? Or will the FvD, true to its pro-Corona stance, allow members to gather physically?
• Thursday: the board now has access to the “hi-jacked ICT systems” (the social media passwords).
• Thursday: Eerdmans, Nanninga, and Pouw-Verweij (the senator who reported Baudet’s anti-semitism) give up their membership. They feel the board’s decision to let the members decide on Baudet’s fate is wrong and he should be expelled immediately.
• That would mean Baudet has won; or rather, his opponents have given up. Apparently they expect the members to choose Baudet’s side. Since quite a few members who support the opposition have given up their membership, they could be right. Still, it feels like an anti-climax.
• Friday: Four more senators leave the FvD but retain their seats. My count is now at six lost senators this week out of 10, so Baudet has only four left. I might have missed one, though.
• Monday: Member vote announced. Also, it turns out Baudet is not officially part of the FvD board any more.

<— FvD news; 26/11 | Small fry; 4/12 —>

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