Sylvana Simons launched new party weeks before leaving DENK: report

Sylviana Simons' new political party Artikel 1 was founded weeks before she announced that she was leaving political party DENK, the Telegraaf reports based on documents from the Chamber of Commerce.

Simons managed to keep her plans for resigning from DENK secret, while establishing her new party in time for the elections, by registering the new party on the name of cultural activists Bram Verhappen and Reguillo Wijngaarde, instead of her own, according to the newspaper. 

Artikel 1's website was reistered on December 6th and the political party was registered with the Chamber of Commerce on December 14th. On December 18th Simons gave an interview as front-woman of DENK, speaking about a video in which her face was edited onto that of a black American who had been lynched.

On December 24th, Simons announced that she was leaving DENK to start her own party. As reasons she said that the party did not support her enough after she was threatened with the video, among other things, and that she could not agree with the party's direction.