No lawsuit against FvD after all, "lawsuit with an empty shell at stake makes no sense"

There will be no lawsuit about the referendum at the Forum for Democracy (FvD), in which Thierry Baudet was again elected as party leader. The three initiators who initially called for a lawsuit now say that it would make no sense.

The former FvD party leaders for Overijssel and Utrecht, Johan Almekinders, and Wouter Weijers, together with ex-parliamentary candidate Jan-Cees Vogelaar, contested the referendum on Friday that reinstalled Baudet as the party’s leader. They argued that the vote was not valid because the membership administration was not in order, among other things. Furthermore, there was also no independent supervision by a notary.

Thierry Baudet stepped down as the leader of the Forum after controversies relating to the circulation of anti-Semitic, homophobic and alt-right WhatsApp messages. This was on November 23, eleven days before he resumed his position.

“With the holding of a so-called binding referendum yesterday, a political fact took place with then FvD. The party has become an empty shell. A lawsuit with an empty shell at stake makes no sense,” said the three former party members on Saturday.

FvD member Floor Drost will go to court to ensure that the party board is being held accountable. Almekinders, Weijers, and Vogelaar have announced that they will now support him in this.

In recent weeks, many representatives and candidate MPs broke with the party and its leader. They were angry because insufficient action was taken within the FvD against right-wing extremist and anti-Semitic statements made in the youth division of the party. In addition, Baudet allegedly made inappropriate statements during a party meeting.