Protester sues far-right politician over hard-handed detainment

Film maker Jasper van den Elshout filed a lawsuit against Thierry Baudet, his far-right populist party FvD, and two of his security guards for hard-handedly putting an end to his demonstration in Den Bosh last month. He was worked to the ground and detained for between 15 and 20 minutes when he protested at a FvD flyer campaign. According to the protester, Baudet and his party violated his right to demonstrate, AD reports.

Van den Elshout's protest consisted of him standing near Baudet with a demonstrative box of "waste paper" as the populist politician handed out party newspapers. Baudet's security guards dragged him from the square, knocked him over, and pushed him to the ground. Van den Elshout injured his shoulder and knee in the incident. He already reported the incident to the police and is now suing Baudet and the others involved.

The demonstrator is supported by the Fuck Up Foundation - a foundation that fights against corruption and abuses in public administration and abuse of power. "It is unprecedented and unacceptable for a political party with its own order service to intimidate and mistreat a peaceful demonstrator," foundation chairman Pierre Karsten said to AD. "We must take a sharp stand against the normalization of politically motivated violence against peaceful protesters."

Baudet spoke about the incident on talk show Beau a few weeks ag. According to him, Van den Elshout acted "much more annoyingly" than he claimed. "He really wanted to walk up to me and would not tell me what was in the box, then he was asked to leave 25 times," Baudet said. According to the politician, his guards used no major aggression.